Aadhaar-based payment frauds are ballooning

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Editor's note: A flurry of frauds across the country in recent months, exploiting the vulnerabilities in Aadhaar-based payment networks, have put local investigation agencies and police cybercrime cells on alert. Criminal gangs have been found colluding with bank agents and contractors to clone fingerprints, defraud beneficiaries and siphon off welfare benefits meant for the poor. In May, at least two groups of fraudsters were arrested by the Haryana and the Madhya Pradesh police. According to two officials in the Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan cybercrime cells, who asked not to be named because they aren’t authorized to speak to the media, several other gangs executing similar frauds are on their radar. In the two high-profile arrests this month—in Gwalior and in Faridabad—the fraudsters were cloning fingerprints lifted from publicly available government records such as those found in the registries of digitized land deeds. Separately, the Telangana police has issued public appeals on social media to beware of Aadhaar-based payments scams. There are two main Aadhaar-based payment systems and both are operated by the National Payments Corporation of India. One, the Aadhaar Payments Bridge …