Spam Troubling Users on BHIM App

NPCI or National Payments Corporation of India is warning users of BHIM app not to pay against requests for payment from unfamiliar VPAs (virtual payment addresses). This was posted on twitter.com after certain user tweeted about receiving spam requests for making payments, on the application, from VPAs he didn't know. According to a promise by NPCI, an update would be provided that will enable spam reporting by BHIM users.

The BHIM application is created for letting anybody ask a user of BHIM to give money, by entering his Virtual Payment Address. For that one needs to manually enter a name, for e.g. Karan else phone number and ask for money while the VPA holding individual will receive the payment request. The money will be sent based on the PIN the payee must type in. Following this, the sum will get withdrawn from payee's A/C. 'Gadgets.ndtv.com' posted this, January 5, 2017.

An uncomplicated VPA on the application namely BHIM implies it can be easily determined what a particular ID is so junk requests can be sent out. Within BHIM, the UPI id normally refers to an individual's cell-phone number as in number@UPI albeit the user can choose to have one differentiated VPA too.

It's said that the application is more secure because it features a 3-Factor validation viz. a PIN needed to login; the cell-phone number as well as device binding necessary for connecting with bank A/C; along with the final UPI PIN necessary for starting the transaction. Kant tweets that users would soon access BHIM on iOS. There would also be several regional languages backing the application.

A Unified payments protocol is the basis of BHIM which apparently poses challenge vis-à-vis mobile wallets. Just one UPI id of the user can complete the transaction that's straight away debited or credited to an end-user's bank account.

There are concerns rising regarding BHIM and the way it's used due to the spam issue tied to it. It's only most recently that NPCI is trying to block the spam that it should have done at the outset. Clearly BHIM is highly preferred within India overriding even Google Play Store.

» SPAMfighter News - 1/11/2017