In a major step to fight cyber fraud and financial scams, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has rolled out the “Financial Fraud Risk Indicator” (FRI), a new tool under its Digital Intelligence Platform (DIP). This tool is being shared with banks, UPI apps, and financial institutions to help them identify and block suspicious transactions more effectively.
FRI uses inputs from various sources such as the National Cybercrime Reporting Portal, DoT’s Chakshu platform, and intelligence shared by financial institutions to classify mobile numbers as having Medium, High, or Very High financial fraud risk. This classification allows platforms to take quick action when a transaction is attempted with a flagged number.
The idea is to strengthen security by giving early warnings about mobile numbers suspected to be involved in fraud. Once a mobile number is flagged, it undergoes analysis and is assigned a risk level. The result is then shared in real time with stakeholders through DIP. This allows digital payment platforms and financial institutions to add extra security checks, delay transactions, or display alerts for users.
UPI apps are already adopting FRI. PhonePe, for instance, is using the tool to block payments to numbers flagged as Very High risk and shows alerts to users as part of its PhonePe Protect feature. For numbers marked Medium risk, it is working on showing proactive warnings before allowing the transaction to go through.
Paytm and Google Pay, along with PhonePe, are now integrating FRI alerts into their platforms. Together, these three apps handle over 90% of all UPI transactions in the country. With UPI being the top payment method in India, this step could prevent millions from falling victim to online fraud.
Some banks are also using FRI to delay transactions and ask for user confirmation before processing payments linked to risky numbers. Since many mobile numbers used in cyber frauds are active only for a few days, this early warning system can help stop crimes before they happen.
The DoT has committed to reducing telecom-related fraud by building strong, tech-driven systems that work in partnership with banks and payment platforms. It continues to share the Mobile Number Revocation List (MNRL), which contains disconnected numbers linked to cybercrime, to further improve tracking and prevention.
The Financial Fraud Risk Indicator is expected to become a standard feature across payment and banking apps, adding another layer of safety to India’s growing digital finance ecosystem.
