With an aim to check digital fraud, the government has suspended 70 lakh mobile numbers on account of suspicious transactions. Financial services secretary Vivek Joshi said that banks have also been asked to strengthen the system and processes to check increasing digital payment fraud.
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He added that more meetings on issues related to financial cyber security will take place and the next meeting is scheduled in January. Joshi also touched on the issues related to Aadhaar Enabled Payment System (AEPS) fraud. He said that states have been asked to look into the issue and ensure data protection.
Create awareness among people
According to Joshi, one of the ways to check cyber fraud is to create awareness about it in society so that gullible customers can be protected from being duped.
According to news agency PTI, this meeting was attended by senior officials of the Department of Economic Affairs, Department of Revenue, Department of Telecom, Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY), Telecom Regulatory Authority of India and National Payments Corporation of India.
Recently, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that there was a need to build awareness among people on cyber fraud to ensure their safety and stop scammers from gaming the system.
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“We are constantly doing what is required…. unless we are able to build that alertness in the minds of people that I should not go by anything that is said on my phone, citizens are at risk,” said Sitharaman.
She was referring to the prevalent scams wherein cyber frauds dupe people by way of a phone call or SMS.
UCO Bank ‘technical glitch’
The meeting came soon after lapses were reported at UCO Bank. Earlier this month, Kolkata-based public sector lender UCO Bank reported erroneous credit of Rs 820 crore to account holders of the bank via Immediate Payment Service (IMPS).
The bank said that during November 10-13 due to technical issues in IMPS, certain transaction(s) initiated by holders of other banks have resulted in credit to the account holders in UCO Bank without actual receipt of money from these banks.
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The bank blocked the recipients’ accounts and has been able to recover Rs 649 crore of the Rs 820 crore or about 79% of the amount.
