PhonePe recently announced a new feature that allows users to make payments or transfers from the app without using the traditional UPI PIN. Instead, users can proceed with payments via biometric authentication, such as a fingerprint sensor or facial recognition.
At first, this may sound like a convenient upgrade. However, considering the way digital scams are happening nowadays, it could turn into a problem.
Here’s why.
Scammers have been targeting gullible victims by first sending a small deposit amount. Minutes later, the victim receives a call claiming that the money was sent by mistake and asking them to return it. The scammer then urges the victim to open the digital payment app like GPay, PhonePe and many others. When the victim opens it and sees a request, some users end up entering their PIN — and the money is gone.
Currently, there is a manual step where users have to enter the UPI PIN to authorise a transaction. That extra step sometimes makes people pause and think. But with this new biometric option, if you are already opening the app using facial recognition or a fingerprint sensor, the request could be processed much more quickly.
In my opinion, this could potentially lead to more scams. However, PhonePe does offer an additional safeguard: PhonePe Protect. It utilizes a Financial Fraud Risk Indicator (FRI) system from the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) and blocks transactions flagged as “Very High FRI.”
That said, this new Biometric Authentication feature is voluntary. Those who want to activate it can do so, and if you don’t want it, that choice is yours. Also, the feature currently supports transactions up to ₹5,000. For payments above that amount, users will still need to enter the UPI PIN. So if someone attempts to scam more than the mentioned limit, the app will still require the PIN.
Personally, I feel that if you have elderly people at home, it would be wiser not to activate this feature and to keep them informed about these types of scams.
Lastly, the feature is currently available only for Android users. As per PhonePe, it will roll out to iOS users soon as well.
