The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) has highlighted five key safety measures to strengthen consumer protection in India’s expanding digital payments ecosystem, as increased festive-season shopping activity raises the risk of online financial fraud.
Festivals typically drive higher consumer spending across online and offline retail channels, supported by attractive discounts, limited-period sales, cashback promotions and gifting campaigns. However, the growing urgency to secure promotional deals also creates opportunities for fraudsters to exploit consumer behaviour through social engineering, fake websites and fraudulent payment requests.
NPCI has advised consumers to shop exclusively through official applications and websites, avoid suspicious links and unknown downloads, and complete transactions only through authorised platform checkout systems after verifying seller details. It has also cautioned against unsolicited cashback, free vouchers and festival gift offers seeking OTPs, banking information or upfront fees.
The corporation reiterated that OTPs are intended only to authenticate transactions initiated by users and must never be shared with callers claiming to represent banks or payment applications.
NPCI has further warned against messages creating pressure through claims of expiring offers, failed payments or account blocking, recommending verification through official channels.
The advisory underscores the importance of consumer awareness, trust and secure transaction practices in sustaining India’s digital payments growth. Promoting the ‘Stop, Think, Act’ principle, NPCI has encouraged users to pause, verify unexpected requests and act responsibly to safeguard financial information and ensure secure digital transactions.