UPI Frauds Nearly Doubles In FY24, Scams Worth Rs 485 Crore In H1 FY25: Finance Ministry
In the first half of fiscal 2025, UPI payments worth Rs 122.05 lakh crore were recorded, the government informed the Lok Sabha during the winter session.
The rapidly expanding payments via the Unified Payments Interface, which made India a global leader in payments innovation, also saw a significant jump in reported frauds.
Scams via the use of the UPI saw an 85% jump in financial year 2024 to Rs 1,087 crore as compared to Rs 573 crore in fiscal 2023, Pankaj Chaudhary, minister of state for finance, said in a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday.
The number of payment fraud incidents also nearly doubled from 7.25 lakh in fiscal 2023 to 13.4 lakh in the last fiscal. UPI frauds worth Rs 485 crore were recorded in the first half of the current fiscal, with 6.32 lakh incidents reported so far, according to the minister.
In the first half of fiscal 2025, UPI payments worth Rs 122.05 lakh crore were recorded as compared to Rs 199.96 lakh crore worth of UPI payments made in the last fiscal, according to the data provided by the minister.
The surge in frauds comes amid the Reserve Bank of India's and the government's combined efforts to shore up the usage to enable ease of transaction for businesses and retail purposes. In the latest monetary committee meeting, the RBI increased the wallet limit to Rs 5,000 from Rs 2,000 earlier and per-transaction limit to Rs 1,000 from Rs 500 earlier.
The UPI now facilitates live transactions in seven countries, including key markets like the UAE, Singapore, Bhutan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, France and Mauritius, according to a PIB statement in September.
The mode of payment became the most preferred mode of real-time payments for millions of users across the country, driven by ease of use facilitated by a growing network of participating banks and fintech platforms.
The value of the UPI transactions has grown from Rs 1 lakh crore to Rs 200 lakh crore at a compound annual growth rate of 138%. The contribution of person-to-merchant transactions reached 62.40% in August 2024, where 85% of these transactions are up to a value of Rs 500, the PIB statement had said.
