Truecaller app that has been a saviour for many in the country that faces severe issue of span calling was recently hit by a bug where people complained that the app tried to sign them up for its UPI-powered payments service called Truecaller Pay without their permission.
Users took to Twitter as well as the Google Playstore listing to share their concerns. They shared how they found text messages on their phone showing Truecaller had tried to register their bank accounts for its payments service.
@TruecallerHelp @Truecaller latest Android version 10.41.6 automatically sends SMS from my SIM to register my UPI Bank A/C to Truecaller pay without my consent the moment I updated to the latest version of the app.
This is quite unacceptable & serious breach of privacy policy.— Shuvodeep Ash (@geeky_ash) July 30, 2019
@Truecaller
Dear Truecaller without my permission how can u register my bank for UPI.This is totally unauthorized step you did.@CyberDost pls look into this.
— Neelkamal 🇮🇳 (@Neelkamal_India) July 30, 2019
was truecaller trying to scam its way into getting my UPI details this morning? the app automatically started and said there was a registration error and i got a notification from ICICI
— No (@RootKanal) July 30, 2019
“We have discovered a bug in the latest update of Truecaller that affected the payments feature, which automatically triggered a registration post updating to the version,” Truecaller said. “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.”
According to Truecaller, its recently rolled out version 10.41.6 for Android has caused the automatic registrations. The company has stopped the rollout version and has published a new version in the Google Play Store with a fix that will reach the users shortly.
“The bug only affected a small fraction of Truecaller’s Android users in India,” Truecaller added. “The rollout of the update was halted immediately after users reported the issue. Any users who have been registered for UPI services will automatically be deregistered at the back end. An updated version with the fix will be rolled out to all users soon.”
