A total of 1,46,495 unified payments interface (UPI) fraudulent activities were reported on the National Cybercrime Reporting Portal (NCRP) during the first and second quarters of 2022, as per the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA).  

Reportedly, MHA said UPI frauds increased by 15.3% between the first (Q1) and second quarters (Q2) of 2022. 

There were 62,350 UPI-related frauds reported on NCRP in Q1 2022. Whereas in Q2 2022, there were 84,145 UPI-related complaints.

The ministry informed that during Q1 and Q2 2022, UPI frauds rose by 34% as compared to other cybercrimes including debit and credit card-related frauds and internet banking-related frauds reported by NCRP. 

In Q1 2022, debit and credit card, and sim swap frauds increased to 24,270 from 26,793 complaints in Q2 2022. 

On the other hand, internet banking cyber complaints decreased from 20,443 in Q1 2022 to 19,267 in Q2 2022.

“Online financial fraud, a cyber crime category under NCRP is the most prevalent among others, as 67.9 % of the total reported cyber crime were online financial frauds,” the ministry said.

Meanwhile, according to the central bank RBI, UPI transactions increased by 1200% in the fiscal year ending September 2022.

The development comes after Inc42 reported that UPI clocked 678 Cr transactions in September 2022 and 657 Cr transactions in the previous month (August). With this, its transaction volume rose by 4% month-on-month (MoM) thus, crossing the INR 11.16 Lakh mark.

Earlier in October, the Centre announced that Oman would begin using Indian payment solutions viz UPI and RuPay credit and debit cards. As part of the deal, the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) and the Central Bank of Oman (CBO) inked an agreement to collaborate in the fintech and payment sector. 

Besides, a slew of countries including Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Philippines, Vietnam, France, Russia, Taiwan, South Korea and Japan (in partnership with Liquid Group), among others are currently using the UPI or in the process of deploying it within their payment ecosystem.