The Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) has introduced a new security feature in the Aadhaar Enabled Payment System (AEPS). The name of this feature is Fingerprint ‘Liveness’, which will help in preventing the use of fake fingerprints to withdraw money through AEPS.
New feature added in PoS machines
The Economic Times quoted an official as saying that this new security feature has been added to AEPS Point of Sale (PoS) machines through a software upgrade. Now PoS will be able to determine whether the fingerprint being used is of a living person or not. In the report, the official also pointed out that the instances of fraud are very rare (about 0.005 per cent).
Since AEPS has been enabled, more than 1,507 crore banking transactions have taken place so far. Hence around 7.54 lakh fraudulent transactions have taken place in the system (as per the percentage mentioned by the officer). The new security feature was fast-tracked and implemented after several reports of misuse of AEPS across the country.
Fingerprints were being cheated like this
According to reports, the fraudulent transactions were carried out using fingerprints, which were cloned on silicone pads. These fingerprints were copied from land transaction records, which were uploaded on the websites of land-revenue departments.
Will help in tracking illegal transactions
On this, Shams Tabrez, Founder and CEO, EasyPay, said that the new security feature will help in tracking fraudulent fingerprints and illegal transactions, hence ensuring better authentication and security.
Government has 50 lakh AEPS PoS machines in the country
He said, “In the recent past we have witnessed several incidents of forgery and frauds which mainly affect people from rural areas, they have complained about malicious transactions of money from unknown places, giving them fake fingerprints. Marks cause trouble and monetary loss.” At present, the government has about 5 million (50 lakh) AEPS PoS machines in the country, of which 35 lakh are active per month.
Guidelines issued for banks and NBFCs
The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) had earlier issued guidelines for banks and non-banking financial institutions (NBFCs) last September to curb incidents of fraud. Under the guidelines, banks were directed to inform within five days of the filing of complaint regarding fraud.
NPCI has also asked banks to submit a detailed investigation report of the incidents within the same time period. Further, banks will have 10 days to present their arguments, arguing that the liability for fraud is not on their end.
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