To increase the pace of development, the central government started the Digital India movement in India on July 1, 2015. Due to this, by 2018, 80 percent people became internet users. With this, various government functions like applying for driving license, submitting electricity and water bills have all started going online. Many other services were also started with this technology, including digital lockers, i.e. all our government documents, like Aadhaar card, degrees, etc., can be locked online and displayed on the mobile phone wherever needed. . All land records have also been made online and direct payment of crops to farmers has started coming into their accounts. E-commerce also got a boost meaning shops opened on mobile or computer to buy things. In banks, the account holder also has the convenience that transactions are done without going to the bank.
One of the objectives of the government was that if transactions are digital, it will be easier to keep track of people’s income and expenditure. This will increase the tax collection. Due to this, the government also demonetized the currency on November 8, 2016. Promoting digital transactions was also an objective behind demonetisation of Rs 2000 notes. Digital transactions got a real boost during the Corona pandemic.
Difficulties: It is natural that when a major technological change comes, it also brings difficulties. Digital transactions have made many people victims of fraud. Even today, 42 percent of Indians believe that they have been cheated somewhere and 74 percent of them did not get their money back.
If we talk about digital payments, which include credit, debit card, UPI, online banking etc., the fraud statistics are as follows. The year 2020-21 means the peak year of Corona. At that time, 4,49,684 cases were reported, which resulted in a loss of 636.12 crores. In the year (2021-22), fraud cases came down, i.e. 3,59,791 cases were registered but the loss increased to 816.40 crores. On the other hand, from April 2022 to September 2022, people had to bear a loss of 418.31 crores in 1,48,887 cases. In the year 2023-24, the number of frauds reached 2.9 lakh or say 800 cases per day, the loss reached about 1457 crore rupees. These figures are from RBI. are given by Most fraud occurs through credit cards.
How does the scam sound?: Most of the people who live in rural areas and are above the age of 45-50 are not well versed in using digital technology. When people use ATM withdraw money from them, at that time if the money does not come out from them, they take help from someone or the other, at that time the fraudsters clone (fake copy) the password and card of the concerned person. In this way, during the Corona period, the oil suppliers were also cheated. Several messages appear, which appear to be from a bank or other government office. A link is given in it, when the person clicks on that link, his entire phone gets ‘cloned’, meaning that all the messages that come to the phone also come to the other’s phone, like O.T. .P. Number etc. This clears his entire account.
