UPI is now the default method of payment for game tokens and diamonds in India. It’s fast, you have a record of every transaction, and it only requires one PIN. The ease of use is precisely why people will stop reading what they approve of.
Why I’m writing this
Here’s why this topic is important to me.
The whole fad for a single payment system (i.e., UPI) has really taken off across all the platforms on the web. It’s by far the quickest and easiest way to make a payment, and that’s why so many of the online services and platforms are going to go with UPI. The conversion interface is absolutely simple and reliable. That’s why today I’m going to be looking at the various online games that are available on the internet. You can use UPI as a secure payment gateway for your users to purchase in-game tokens/diamonds, which they can then use to play the game.
The games that are out there (Call of Duty, Free Fire, Battlegrounds Mobile India, etc.) all have the UPI payment option. They’re the safe bet, really, in that if you make a mistake, you won’t end up paying the wrong amount. They can issue a refund to you in line with RBI guidelines and policies. That said, if you’re using a third-party platform to make your online UPI payment to buy their service, then you need to be extremely cautious. Once the payment has gone, it’s very difficult to get a refund. Be very careful when making online payments via any third-party online service.
There are literally so many online gaming sites out there that are using UPI as their preferred method of payment for their users (for making payments, to purchase their services, and to actually play the game, given the ease and convenience of it). You do need to be careful to save or, at the very least, write down your UTR (12-digit transaction reference) for any deposit, as you could well end up with a technical glitch at any time (a payment could be debited but not credited, for example). You should always have that UTR on hand. There are a number of sites out there that are claiming to offer real money, but there are, of course, risks involved, and you have to be absolutely aware of those risks before you put any money down.
As I remember, a BDG game, which is purported to be a real money-making platform, has recently gone viral and is trending in India. By posting about it on my blog, I’m in a position to at least provide some level of awareness around the use of UPI in terms of actually making money or claiming your withdrawals. You have to do your own due diligence before you go and use such services. You have to be aware that if you can afford to lose something, then you can go and use those services, as there is always a risk of you spending money rather than earning it. There is no 100% guarantee.
The rest of the article is the practical bit: what a clean deposit looks like, where the refunds end, and what you need to be looking at before you even think about withdrawing anything.
How a deposit actually runs
At checkout, you select UPI. Your UPI app opens (or you type in a UPI ID). You see the payment request and approve it with your PIN. Games downloaded from an official store will generally be routed through the store, so you’ll also get a receipt in your email. That email receipt is actually far more important than most people realize.
Read the payee name before you type the PIN
If you only ever build one habit, make it this one. The approval screen will show who you’re paying. In the case of a legitimate game purchase, that should be the publisher, the store, or some well-known entity. If it’s a random individual’s name, then cancel.
What a bad top-up looks like
A dodgy version: a seller on some social media or chat app is selling diamonds at a price that is absolutely ridiculous. You’re asked to send the money to their personal UPI ID, and they give you absolutely no invoice. You send the money, and the diamonds (if they ever get sent at all) arrive a very long time later. The only thing you have as proof is the chat, which, of course, can be deleted at any time.
A good version: you pay inside the game or the official store, you get a receipt, and the seller of record is a company with a support channel.
Myth: UPI payments are always refundable
UPI is not a refund policy. A debit that never credits will typically reverse itself within a few working days, and your UTR number is the proof if it doesn’t. A payment that has gone through is the merchant’s responsibility. The bank can only tell you what the merchant’s policy is, and a third-party seller has absolutely no obligation to you. That is why the official source is so important.
Autopay: the setting nobody checks
The vast majority of UPI apps will have your active recurring payments listed under an ‘AutoPay’ or ‘Mandates’ section. Just open that up once. If you see a mandate that you don’t recognize, then pause or revoke it immediately and check your bank alerts.
We used to have just one option to use your online credit/debit cards to purchase things from all the various platforms. Since UPI came into being in India, it’s completely taken over all the major cards, and people now use UPI for their payments as it’s so much easier to use, and you can track everything that you’ve paid. My own son actually started playing Free Fire on the tablet that I’d bought him to learn on. I didn’t even know what he was doing on that tablet. All of a sudden, I get a notification from my bank that ₹40,000 has been debited from my account via auto pay, which my son had done by accident in Free Fire. I immediately went to the UPI app and turned off auto pay. I then got in touch with my bank to request a refund of the ₹40,000 that my child had accidentally paid. The staff at Bank of India were very straightforward and just told me to forget about it.
It’s not refundable as you’ve already used the service. I went through the complaint via the UPI app, via the 1930 cyber fraud site, and actually rang them to ask for a refund. They said no, it’s an auto-pay that you’ve set up yourself on your device. I then drafted a professional email to them about the error I’d made (used ChatGPT to draft it initially and then fiddled with it in Gemini AI), and after 3 months, I sent that to the Google Play Store customer team. They looked at the email and, with absolutely no explanation whatsoever, refunded every single amount in all the partitions. As the game was downloaded via the Google Play Store and Google refunded the money, I’m just so grateful. That’s why I would always recommend using a reputable and verified source to play these games.
After the mandate is canceled, the next step is the refund request, and again, the right channel makes all the difference. If it was a purchase via an official store, then you need to raise it with the store’s support team (again, a simple factual email with the dates, amounts, and transaction IDs).
On a device, a child or anyone else shares:
- Turn on ‘Require authentication for purchases’ in the store settings.
- Don’t leave your UPI app unlocked and don’t have your PIN saved anywhere that the device can reach.
- Use parental controls if the store offers them.
- Keep a low-balance account linked to UPI on that device.
Withdrawals: where the real risk sits
Depositing is simple. The thing that tells you whether a platform is genuine is the withdrawal. There are literally hundreds of platforms out there that will promise you real money for small tasks, and a bdg game style site is the very type of proposition you’re going to see time and again. I’m just citing it as an example of what the offer looks like, not in any way endorsing it. Real money gaming is also currently under very strict legal scrutiny in India, so do make sure you check the current regulations before you deposit a single rupee.
Walk away if you see any of these:
- A fee (‘tax’ or ‘unlock deposit’) is required prior to your funds being released.
- Withdrawals that only go to an account in a different name from yours.
- No company details, no working support contact, no written terms.
- Pressure to deposit again to clear a pending balance.
Start with a small amount that you can afford to lose, withdraw it, and see how long it takes. If that test fails, you’ve lost nothing.
My verdict
UPI isn’t the risk. The risk is where the money actually ends up and who is on the other end.
A reasonable level of awareness is required; otherwise, UPI is absolutely brilliant. You can pay, you can withdraw, you can send money to your family and your friends, you can do all sorts of things as long as it’s safe.
Use the official stores, log every UTR, check your mandates, and treat any promise of easy money as unproven until you actually get the money out of the store into your own account.
