“WhatsApp pay should have overall security levels broadly similar to other major UPI application providers given its focus on message encryption, data localization, etc,” said Fali Hodiwalla, partner - financial services, consulting at advisory firm EY.īesides, partner banks follow strict security policies to protect customer data. Users can transfer funds across 160 banks in India using WhatsApp, the company said in a statement on Friday.īeyond the risk that emerges from its large user base, the security offered by WhatsApp Pay should be similar to other third party payment applications.

and Jio Payments Bank to process payment services. In its blog, WhatsApp Pay said it is currently working with five Indian banks, including State Bank of India, HDFC Bank Ltd., ICICI Bank Ltd., Axis Bank Ltd. Kumar previously worked on building out the UPI framework at iSpirt.Īs a payment application, WhatsApp needs to address this issue “seriously” by either putting caps on peer-to-peer transfers, allowing users to report frauds, blocking suspicious users or capping the value of transactions that can be made on the app, said Kumar. “The privacy concern is a larger problem with WhatsApp than the other payment applications primarily because of its large user base in India, which makes it that much harder for the company to curb social engineering attacks,” said Nikhil Kumar, co-founder and chief evangelist at Setu. These are attacks that take advantage of human instincts by tricking victims into revealing confidential information, such as credit card details, passwords, etc. One concern emerges from the fraud risk linked to WhatsApp’s large user base, which could increase the chances of ‘social engineering attacks'.

This is fraction of the 400 million users that the WhatsApp messaging platform has in India. WhatsApp has been permitted to onboard only 20 million users in the first phase. WhatsApp Pay Vs Other Digital Payment Options

Is whatsapp safe in india