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India’s One97 Communications has announced a new feature called ‘Wallet Insurance’ for its popular digital payments platform, Paytm. The feature is available to all users by default, and Paytm promises a refund of up to Rs. 20,000 ($300) in the event of “theft, loss of device or unauthorized access of their Paytm wallets” provided, the victim reports the theft to the company within twelve hours of the incident. Users making a claim will also have to file a police report (FIR) and share the details with the company within twenty-four hours. Once Paytm receives the complaint along with details of the police report, it will block the user’s account with immediate effect and proceed to verify the authenticity of the claim.
If the claim is found to be genuine, Paytm promises to settle the case within five working days. According to the company, the money deducted fraudulently from the user’s Paytm account will be deposited back to their digital wallet once the company is satisfied with the veracity of the complaint. It is important to note here that victims must report any unauthorized transaction within a 12-hour window to be eligible for the insurance payout. Any claims made after that will simply not be entertained. Paytm has also listed a couple of ways to report the alleged incident and raise an insurance claim. Users should either log on to paytm.com/care, or call the company’s customer care number at (+91) 9643 979797. Paytm also says that it will only entertain one claim per user within a 12-month period. The Insurance will also not apply in case the money was lost due to negligence, misuse of credit card/debit card/bank account information by the user, or by not adopting the latest security features released by the company.
It will be interesting to see how Paytm stops fraudulent claims by scammers and fraudsters going forward. The platform is already India’s largest mobile payments platform, having crossed a whopping 200 million users last month. The company is aiming for a 500 million user base for its flagship e-wallet venture by 2020, but has also diversified to other online businesses in recent times, including a new online shopping platform called Paytm Mall that was unveiled earlier this year. Users wanting to check out the Paytm app on their Android devices can download it through the link below.
