Google Pay In India Now Has Notifications And SMS Alerts To Tackle Scams

Aadhya Khatri - Aug 11, 2019

This new SMS alerts and notification system will tell users of Google Pay who they are paying and where their money is being sent

Users of Google Pay in India now have notifications and SMS alert system to help them avoid scams.

Google Pay was released under the name Google Tez in the country in 2017. It made use of UPI (short for Unified Payments Interface) of the Indian government to offer millions of users the option to pay via their mobile devices.

Google-Pay-India-New-Security — Google Pay now has SMS alerts and notification to help users avoid scams

The service caught on, and in merely a few weeks, it gained around 8 million users in India. The name Google Pay came to be applied last year, and from there forward, its popularity shows no sign of waning.

One of the reasons why this service can gain the hearts and minds of Indian users is that it is easy to use; but at the same time, this has turned it into a breeding ground for scams; thus Google’s decision to add SMS alerts and notifications.

The new system to tackle scams was announced via Google’s India blog, and they work alongside the existing UPI platform.

On Google Pay, users can both send money and requests to receive payments, which is what scammers exploit. These bad actors may promise to pay a stranger money, but instead, what the victims receive is a collect request. In some situations, these requests are excepted because of bad UI or by mistake.

On selling sites, scammers may pretend to be interested in a listed item, call the seller, and ask to let them pay for it upfront. The rest of the scam happens exactly like above.

Aware of this risk, Google has taken measures to make it harder for bad actors to exploit the UPI system. Now, users can enjoy the benefit of Google SafetyNet authentication platform on Google Pay with the PIN entry helping to avoid unauthorized access.

With the new system, whenever Indian users send a collect request, they will receive SMS notification telling them who they are paying and where the money is being sent.

This nowhere near a complete solution that can make Google Pay a scam-free platform, but it promises to greatly reduce the chance of users being swindled of the money.