UPI services will be unavailable for some users from April 1
Starting April 1, Unified Payments Interface (UPI) IDs connected to inactive mobile numbers will be removed, according to a report.
The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) will remove these IDs and users with inactive mobile numbers will be unable to use online payment applications like Google Pay, Paytm, PhonePe, etc.
Citing security concerns, the NPCI has stated that the UPI IDs associated with the inactive mobile numbers are a ‘threat’.
It said, many users who either change or deactivate their numbers, often forget to delete their UPI IDs, which could be misused by fraudsters in the future.
This comes at a time when there is a significant rise in the number of scams where many people have been robbed of their money.
To overcome such a situation, NPCI has asked banks and payment apps to remove these inactive mobile numbers from their UPI network.
It has asked banks and payment apps to regularly monitor and remove mobile numbers that have been inactive, deactivated, or reassigned to someone else.
Before cancelling the services, banks have been asked to send a notification to the users regarding the same.
However, if the users fail to take the above-mentioned steps, the UPI ID will be removed to avoid the risk of fraud.