The central government direction making it mandatory for citizens to link their Aadhaar cards to their financial and other identities has been roundly criticised for many reasons; not least because this government was one of the most vocal critics of Aadhaar itself when it graced the opposition benches. People have been asked to link Aadhaar to bank accounts, PAN cards, phone connections, even marriage records! Concerns relating to Aadhaar ranged from privacy to safety of data to apprehensions of government authorities snooping into citizens’ personal lives. These concerns have been brushed aside by supporters of Aadhaar; recent news shows that the concerns are legitimate.
Recent reports indicate that Aadhaar cards are becoming a useful means for online fraudsters to siphon off money from the bank accounts of general public. In Hyderabad, about 20 people are getting conned every day by fraudsters: the fraudster calls up a customer pretending to be a bank representative facilitating the linking of Aadhaar to their debit card. By this pretext, the fraudster manages to obtain the 12 digit debit card, and misuses this information in various different ways.
While this is one ploy where scamsters are using Aadhaar to con people, there are other features relating to Aadhaar that are susceptible to fraud. In Delhi and Noida, bank customers have been filing complaints that scamsters have been using the Unified Payment Interface-supported application linked to Aadhaar to siphon off bank funds. In particular, those citizens who are less digitally savvy find themselves more susceptible to scams.
The fertile brains of scamsters are finding new ways to exploit features of the Aadhaar to further their con schemes. While it’s true that con-men will forever find new and innovative methods to defraud citizens of their hard earned money, the Aadhaar scheme has placed within reach a whole new set of possibilities.
According to the Bangalore based citizen's group, The Centre for Internet and Society (CIS) Aadhaar linked financial transactions are not protected by sufficient security features. A lot of personal information is vulnerable to hackers and clever fraudsters; who can then manipulate this information for personal gain. The system as it exists currently is inadequate to protect the vast amount of personal information it has gathered from the public at large.
Since the government wants us to link everything to our Aadhaar – our bank account numbers, our phone numbers, PAN cards, passports and any other piece of personal identity – it is obvious that if one is able to access someone’s Aadhaar database, they are privy to a wealth of other information as well! Regardless of what the government says, identity theft is a significant possibility. People are devious enough to manage to use the Aadhaar information of others to get benefits such as government subsidies or grants; preventing these from reaching the rightful recipients.
On many government websites, Aadhaar numbers and personally identifiable information are easily available. Via these portals, the financial information of citizens also becomes vulnerable. For instance, there are reports to show that brokers buy copies of Aadhaar documents from vendors selling SIM cards and then use them for the purposes of identify fraud.
Our biometric data is also unsafe. Fraudsters can collect fingerprints without consent by lifting these remotely and can also use high resolution direction cameras to pick up iris data even from a distance. There is a further difficulty – Aadhaar enable payment systems have vague terms and redressal systems are not fully in place yet. Hence, if you or I are defrauded, it is unclear whom we would be required to approach for redress or indeed if redressal is possible and swift enough.
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