Ayear ago, when Diksha, an 18-year-old girl from Bengaluru, uploaded a tweet with her GPay scanner displayed along with the UPI ID, she never thought that it would end up in her getting harassed by a 44-year-old ‘married man’.
In a tweet thread, which is now going viral and has more than 2.7 million views (as of now), Diksha mentioned how this man allegedly got her number through her UPI ID and started sending her money, which later turned into text messages, and then his nudes.
Diksha says in her tweet that he is a ‘married man’, and that ‘every time she blocks him, he creates a new account’.
However, like Diksha, ever since the introduction of the Unified Payments Interface (UPI) in 2016, our reliance on digital payments has grown significantly.
This dependency has reached a point where we feel confident stepping out of the house with just 11 rupees in our pocket. Sometimes, even nothing.
The rise in UPI transactions
One crore eighty-four lakh fifty-eight thousand three hundred and thirty-three (1,84,58,333) is the staggering count of UPI transactions that we Indians make every hour. Over a day, this amounts to approximately 44.3 crore transactions across the country. This is a 50 per cent increase from the previous year.
In case you weren’t aware, UPI (made in India) is a digital payment system that combines multiple bank accounts into a single mobile app, allowing users to make merchant payments, route funds, and perform peer-to-peer transactions.
It has become India’s fastest-growing payment system and has also been rolled out in other countries, including Singapore, France, Sri Lanka, Mauritius, and Nepal.
But here’s the thing: every time you click ‘Pay Now’ or share your UPI ID from your UPI app, through any third-party app like Paytm, Google Pay, BHIM, or PhonePe, there’s a good chance that your number is getting shared.
This has caused a lot of trouble for people, especially women, since your number reaching the wrong hands can be dangerous, as we saw in the case of Diksha.
Through Ola, Uber and Rapido
One such common example where harassment of women is becoming increasingly common is when you use third-party ride-hailing apps like Ola, Uber, or Rapido, and you pay digitally using a payment service app.
India Today spoke to various women and found that a lot of them have faced similar problems where the drivers of these taxi apps end up harassing them by text through messaging apps like WhatsApp or on the UPI app itself.
For instance, in July 2023, a thread went viral on X where a woman from Bengaluru accused a Rapido bike driver of continuously texting her on WhatsApp after the ride.
Thread ЁЯз╡#SexualHarassement
— Athira Purushothaman (@Aadhi_02) July 21, 2023
Today, I went for the Manipur Violence protest at Town Hall Bangalore and booked a @rapidobikeapp auto for my way back home. However, multiple auto cancellations led me to opt for a bike instead. pic.twitter.com/bQkw4i7NvO
Swathishree Parthasarathi, a 25-year-old brand associate from Mumbai, shares that she has also experienced similar harassment when drivers text her on GPay, trying to ‘start a conversation,’ which she generally ignores.
The social media platform X is filled with complaints from various women about drivers who end up texting them.
Hello @Uber_India Support Team,
— Bhumika (@thisisbhumika) October 20, 2023
I am writing to express my serious concern regarding a recent experience I had with one of your driver. On 19/10/2023, I encountered a distressing situation where I received inappropriate messages from one of your drivers after a ride.
ThisтАж pic.twitter.com/M1Wf537iZQ
Another reason why sharing your number through UPI payments is so dangerous is that it may expose your number to potential scammers. This has contributed to a significant increase in online scams in India.
The rise in digital scams in India ft online payments
- The incidence of digital scams in India has seen a sharp rise, especially with the rapid expansion of digital payments. By the end of March 2024, fraud related to digital payments increased more than fivefold, reaching Rs 14.57 billion (in a year), according to RBI.
- This spike is closely tied to the widespread adoption of the Unified Payments Interface (UPI), which experienced a 137 per centgrowth in transactions over the past two years.
- This has made users more susceptible to scams such as phishing, fake digital loan applications, and sextortion.
But is there a way out of this?
If you’re wondering whether there’s a way to prevent your phone number from being shared when making digital payments, the simple answer is NO.
We explored various platforms to find a method that effectively conceals your number, but no fully reliable solution exists.
Even if you use a Virtual Payment Address (VPA) or UPI ID, in most cases, your UPI ID is tied to your phone number, often in the format of your number followed by “@nameofbank,” making it easy for others to access your number.
For example, on Paytm, your UPI ID is your phone number linked to your bank account, followed by the bank’s name.
We tried removing our phone number from our Paytm UPI ID and creating a new one using our email address, which was possible before.
However, we couldn’t do it. It seems the latest Paytm update has removed that option, and now any new UPI ID made from Paytm will have the phone number.
Similarly, on Google Pay, while your UPI ID might be your email address, this isn’t always the case. Regardless, once a payment is made, your phone number is displayed on the receiver’s phone.
So, the next time you quickly pull out your phone to pay online, make sure you’re paying someone trustworthy.
Pro tip: Avoid paying directly to drivers or delivery personnel when using apps like Ola, Uber, Amazon or Rapido, etc.
Source: msn
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