Truecaller Automatically Registered Its Users For UPI Without Consent, Company Says Its Bug

Many users complained on social media that Truecaller created their UPI account with ICICI Bank without their consent. Users faced this issue after they updated their Android app to the latest Truecaller Version 10.41.6. Truecaller, a caller-ID app has 100 million users in India.

Truecaller, a user-generated content app that stores registration details of telephone numbers in its database, has a feature named Truecaller Pay, which offers UPI-based transactions like any other payment application. On 30 July, users received an SMS from ICICI Bank that read: “Your registration for UPI app has started. If it was not you, report now to your bank. Do not share card details/OTP/CVV with anyone to avoid financial loss.”

The issues users faced

Several Truecaller users have reported this UPI-related issue on Twitter as well as in the reviews section in the Google Play Store, fearing that the app is breaching personal data and accessing their banking information.

I woke up and checked my android phone, which auto-updated a few apps, including @Truecaller . It automatically, immediately sent an encrypted SMS from my phone to an unknown number, following which @ICICIBank sent me a sms …

— Dheeraj Kumar (@codepodu) July 30, 2019

In one of the tweets, a user clarified that he does not have an account with ICICI Bank. To recall, Truecaller partnered with ICICI Bank back in 2017 to launch UPI-based mobile payment service.

Auto UPI registration by Truecaller without my consent. Scam pic.twitter.com/GavblTomDC

— Peacelover (@peacefullyvoile) July 30, 2019

Users claimed that the bug is automatically creating UPI accounts with ICICI Bank without the user’s knowledge. However, only some Android users were affected as Truecaller removed the update after receiving feedback and rectified the application for users affected by the problem.

“We have discovered a bug in the latest update of Truecaller that affected the payments feature, which automatically triggered a registration post updating to the version. This was a bug, and we have discontinued this version of the app so no other users will be affected,” Truecaller said in a statement later on July 30.

“We’re sorry about this version not passing our quality standards. We’ve taken quick steps to fix the issue, and already rolled out a fix in a new version,” the statement read.

The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI), the makers of UPI ecosystem said that they have been notified about the situation.

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