ACI Report: India’s APP Scam Losses Surge with UPI Adoption

Authorized push payment (APP) scam losses in India reached INR 37,309 million in 2023 and are projected to grow at a 6% compound annual growth rate (CAGR) to reach INR 49,626 million by 2028, according to the latest Scamscope report from ACI Worldwide (NASDAQ: ACIW), a pioneer in global payments technology, in partnership with GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company. The report analysed APP scams across six leading real-time payment markets globally: U.S., U.K., India, Brazil, Australia and the UAE.

APP scams involve scammers tricking their victims into initiating a payment to a destination account under the scammer’s control. Scammers commonly pose as government officials or other trusted entities, deceiving victims into making payments. This trust-based manipulation makes APP scams particularly challenging to detect as the transaction appears legitimate and bypasses traditional fraud detection systems and controls.

According to the report, impersonation scams are the number one APP scam type in India and contribute to 21% of overall APP scams, followed by investment and advance payment scams. The report highlighted a 43% increase year-on-year in average scam values in 2023 as scammers shifted to more advanced impersonation scams involving larger sums. The rise of AI has also sparked a new era of scamming, enabling scammers to amplify inherited trust and automate precision attacks with sophistication and at scale.

India is making strides in combating APP scams with initiatives like the Sanchar Saathi portal, which empowers users to block unauthorized SIMs and report fraud. Although India is among the highest-risk markets for APP scams globally, it is taking proactive steps to tackle the issue more effectively than any other market included in the study, with the lowest 2023-2028 CAGR forecast for APP scams at 6% across all the markets analysed in the report.

However, the fight is far from over. India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI) has driven significant digital payment adoption, but it also provides fertile ground for scammers, who exploit the immediacy of real-time transactions. APP scam losses over real-time payments reached INR 33,230 million in 2023, contributing to 89% of overall APP scam losses.

“As the world’s largest real-time payment market, India has revolutionized digital payments with UPI. Real-time payments offer unparalleled speed and convenience, and with robust security measures in place, they can be the most efficient and secure payment rails. By fostering cross-industry intelligence sharing and harnessing AI to predict and detect scams, India can set a new standard of trust in real-time payments,” said Santhosh Rao, Senior Vice President, Sales – MEASA, ACI Worldwide.

ACI’s Scamscope report advocates AI-driven fraud management systems to help analyse transaction data, flag anomalies and facilitate a coordinated cross-industry defence to share precise and collective intelligence in real-time. As UPI expands its footprint globally, India is in a strong position to showcase its leadership in real-time payments while setting a gold standard for security.