Why growing trust in digital payments may be leaving Indians more exposed to cybercrime
India’s Unified Payments Interface (UPI) is increasingly trusted and widely used, but a 2026 SPIR study shows that users with the highest confidence in online banking are also most vulnerable to cyber fraud. Criminal groups exploit this trust through deceptive schemes, counterfeit applications and fake ‘digital arrest’ tactics, leading to a rise in reported cybercrime incidents among digital payment users.