Lock Your Aadhaar Biometrics Today To Keep Your Aadhaar Data Safe And Avoid Aadhaar Card Scam, Here's How

Aadhaar Data safety: Aadhaar card holders should lock biometric data online if they want their Aadhaar data to be safe so that it is not used by scammers for illegal means. Recently, several incidents of Aadhaar Card fraud have come to the limelight. A media report revealed that a report by US-based cybersecurity company Resecurity has said that personal identifiable information of around 815 million or 81.5 crore Indians has been leaked and is up for sale on the dark web.

In a blog post dated October 15, 2023, the Resecurity website wrote, "On October 9th, a threat actor going by the alias 'pwn0001' posted a thread on Breach Forums brokering access to 815 million "Indian Citizen Aadhaar & Passport" records. To put this victim group in perspective, India's entire population is just over 1.486 billion people."
The company said that its HUNTER investigators established contact with the threat actor and learned they were willing to sell the entire Aadhaar and Indian passport dataset for $80,000.

Scammers are not only making money by selling your data on the Dark Web in exchange for money but it is also worth mentioning that your Aadhaar details can also be used to seal your hard-earned money from your bank account. By using a loophole in the new Aadhaar-enabled Payment System (AePS), fraudsters these days can drain your bank account to zero even without using OTP but just by having access to fingerprint data, an Aadhaar number, and the name of the bank.

In this fraudulent activity, the most important part of AePS jigsaw where scammers get creative is the fingerprint pattern. Scammers try to obtain fingerprint data of the Aadhaar Card holder from land registry offices or other sources where fingerprints are used to authenticate services. This fingerprint data is then imprinted on artificial silicon thumbs which are used to withdraw money using AePS.

How to lock Aadhaar Biometrics online?

In order to save yourself from losing your hard-earned money, Aadhaar card holders must lock their biometric data either by using the mAadhaar app or the UIDAI website. As AePS is enabled for all Aadhaar card holders by default and biometric data is also unlocked by default, users need to take note and disable it to stay safe.

How to keep your Aadhaar Card safe from scammers?

In order to disable AePS and lock the biometric data of your Aadhaar card, you need to download the mAadhaar app and then use your Aadhaar-linked mobile number to sign up.

Verify your Aadhaar details and choose to lock your biometric using the app. You can unlock biometrics using the app whenever you need to. You can also lock your Aadhaar number on the app to prevent users from signing up for services online using their Aadhaar number and OTP.

Note that the Aadhaar-enabled Payment System (AePS) was recently introduced by the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI). The AePS initiative was introduced to ease microATM transactions up to Rs 10,000 per transaction. In a day, up to Rs 50,000 can be withdrawn through AePS.

How to download the mAadhaar app on an Android smartphone or iPhone?

• Open the Google Play Store and install mAadhaar app. For iPhones, use the App Store.
• Give the required permission for the mAadhaar app to download
• Once, the mAadhaar gets installed on your phone, set in a password for the app
• Remember that the password should be of 4 digits (all numerals).

Steps to follow to Lock Biometrics through mAadhaar App:

• Open the mAadhaar app, and log in using your user ID and password
• Click on the profile
• Tap on the Menu option
• Click on the 'Biometric Settings'
• Place a tick on the 'Enable Biometric Lock' option
• Tap on 'OK' and an OTP will be sent to the mobile number registered in Aadhar
• As soon as the OTP is entered, the biometric details will immediately get locked.

How to Lock Your Aadhaar Biometrics Online On UIDAI

• Go To the UIDAI's official portal
• Select "Lock/Unlock Biometrics"
• Enter Aadhaar number and Captcha code
• Receive OTP on the registered number
• Activate "Enable locking feature"