In a significant move to tackle the escalating issue of financial cyber crimes across the nation, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has introduced the Financial Fraud Risk Indicator (FRI). This new tool is designed to empower banks, UPI service providers, and other financial institutions with enhanced capabilities to detect and prevent fraudulent activities more effectively.
According to a press release issued on Wednesday, the FRI facilitates real-time intelligence sharing between telecom and financial entities by categorizing mobile numbers based on their risk association with financial fraud. The tool operates as an integral part of the Digital Intelligence Platform (DIP).
The FRI generates risk alerts, labeled as ‘Medium’, ‘High’, or ‘Very High’, drawing inputs from diverse sources including the Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre’s National Cybercrime Reporting Portal (NCRP), the DoT’s Chakshu platform, and data contributed by financial institutions themselves. These risk assessments are then disseminated to relevant stakeholders, enabling them to take proactive measures such as declining suspicious transactions or displaying warnings to users before they proceed.
“It empowers stakeholders—especially banks, NBFCs, and UPI service providers—to prioritise enforcement and take additional customer protection measures in case a mobile number has high risk,” the DoT stated. The release further highlighted that many mobile numbers implicated in cyber fraud tend to be active for only short periods, underscoring the critical need for early warnings and actionable intelligence.
Digital payments company PhonePe is among the early adopters of the FRI tool and has already integrated these risk signals into its operational framework. For mobile numbers flagged as ‘Very High’ risk, PhonePe has proactively declined transactions and alerted users through its PhonePe Protect feature. For numbers categorized as ‘Medium’ risk, the platform is actively working on implementing a visible user warning before transaction completion.
The DIP also enables the DoT’s Digital Intelligence Unit (DIU) to regularly share the Mobile Number Revocation List (MNRL)—a comprehensive record of disconnected mobile numbers along with the reasons for their disconnection, such as involvement in cybercrime or failure of re-verification. This initiative aims to enhance vigilance across financial services and deter the use of revoked or suspicious numbers for illicit activities.
“The data shared by PhonePe indicates the efficacy of the model as the predictability of the numbers passed as soft signal to be actually involved in cyber fraud cases has been found to be very high,” the release emphasized, highlighting the success of this collaborative approach between telecom and financial entities.
With the continued rise in cyber fraud and the increasing reliance on digital payments as the backbone of India’s financial ecosystem, the launch of the FRI marks a crucial step forward in bolstering user trust and ensuring the integrity of the financial system. The DoT’s new framework signals a proactive and collaborative stance in fostering a more secure digital financial environment for all.
Summary :-
- The DoT has launched the ‘Financial Fraud Risk Indicator’ (FRI) to help financial institutions detect and prevent cyber fraud.
- The FRI tool uses real-time intelligence sharing to classify mobile numbers by their risk of being involved in financial fraud, issuing alerts.
- PhonePe is an early adopter, using FRI signals to decline high-risk transactions and warn users.
- The DoT will also share a Mobile Number Revocation List (MNRL) to further enhance vigilance against fraudulent activities.