Several users of the caller ID app Truecaller were in for a rude surprise after updating their app, when they received a message from ICICI Bank stating that the registration for UPI services has begun. This is after Truecaller automatically sent out UPI-linking requests without the consent of the user.
Users who were affected received an SMS from ICICI Bank -- late on Monday evening and on Tuesday morning, that said,"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".
Several users took to Twitter to complain about the same, some stating that they didn’t even have an ICICI Bank account. ICICI is reportedly Truecaller’s partner for its UPI payment services.
Truecaller, in a statement, acknowledged this error calling it a bug that was affecting the payments feature, which automatically triggered a registration after a user updated their app.
“This was a bug and we have discontinued this version of the app so no other users will be affected. 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. For the users already affected, the new version with the fix will be available shortly, however, in the meanwhile they can choose to manually deregister through the overflow menu in the app,” it said in a statement.
— Truecaller (@Truecaller) July 30, 2019
In a tweet, Sony Joy, the head of Truecaller Pay & Financial Services, said that they were in the process of deregistering the users.
We are in the process of deregistering all the affected users. We commit to it that it will be done by EOD. This is an unfortunate slip in our release process, it's extremely rare that we miss a bug like this. We're extremely sorry for the bad experience. We'll make up for it.
— Sony Joy (@sonyjoy) July 30, 2019
Truecaller, which has over 150 million registered users in India, announced the launch of its mobile payment service in March 2017 in partnership with ICICI Bank.
“Truecaller users will be able to create their unique Virtual Payment Address (VPA) in the app, and can instantly send or receive money using any Unified Payments Interface (UPI) supported bank,” it said in a company statement at the time.
In June 2018, it acquired Mumbai-based mobile payments startup Chillr with the aim of launching mobile recharges, bill payments, and other utility payment services under its ‘Truecaller Pay’ feature.