The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has introduced a new tool aimed at preventing cyber fraud and financial crimes. Known as the Financial Fraud Risk Indicator (FRI), the tool is part of the Digital Intelligence Platform (DIP) and is designed to provide early warnings about mobile numbers potentially linked to fraud.
The DoT will now share FRI alerts with financial institutions and digital payment platforms. These alerts are based on a multi-layered analysis of various data sources and are intended to help stakeholders assess the fraud risk level of mobile numbers before processing transactions.
What Is the Financial Fraud Risk Indicator?
The FRI classifies mobile numbers into three risk categories: Medium, High, or Very High. This classification is based on:
- Cases registered through India’s National Cybercrime Reporting Portal (NCRP)
- Inputs from DoT’s Chakshu platform
- Intelligence from banks and financial institutions
These alerts help banks, NBFCs, and UPI service providers take extra precautions when a number is marked as high risk.
How It Works
The DoT’s Digital Intelligence Unit (DIU) regularly circulates a Mobile Number Revocation List (MNRL), which contains details of numbers disconnected for reasons like:
- Involvement in cybercrime
- Failure to complete re-verification
- Exceeding allowed usage limits
Many of these numbers are linked to financial frauds. The FRI provides advance warnings about potentially risky mobile numbers. Once a number is flagged by any stakeholder, the DIP system performs an in-depth analysis and assigns a fraud risk level. This information is then shared immediately with all stakeholders.
Integration with Financial Platforms
The release noted that PhonePe was among the first to use the FRI system. PhonePe said it blocks transactions linked to “Very High” risk numbers and shows alerts via its PhonePe Protect feature. For “Medium Risk” numbers, the company is developing warnings before transactions proceed.
Wider Industry Adoption
Other major UPI platforms such as Paytm and Google Pay, which together process over 90% of UPI transactions in India, have also started integrating FRI alerts. Examples include:
- Delaying transactions and issuing alerts that require user confirmation
- Using risk data from DIP to reduce fraud attempts
Banks are also leveraging this information to improve internal fraud detection systems.
DoT’s Objective and Future Outlook
The DoT stated that this move is part of its ongoing effort to stop the misuse of telecom resources through technology-led solutions. The department aims to build a secure telecom environment by working closely with digital payment firms and financial institutions.
According to DoT, integrating the FRI into user-facing systems could become a standard industry practice, improving the resilience of India’s digital financial infrastructure.