DoT Launches Financial Fraud Risk Indicator – Check if Your Mobile Number is Associated

In a significant move to combat cyber fraud and financial crime, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has rolled out a new tool named the Financial Fraud Risk Indicator (FRI). 

Developed under the Digital Intelligence Platform (DIP), the FRI is designed to provide advanced, actionable intelligence to financial institutions, digital payment platforms, and banks. This initiative aims to bolster cyber protection by identifying mobile numbers linked to potential financial fraud before a transaction takes place.

What is the Financial Fraud Risk Indicator?

The FRI is a risk-based metric that classifies mobile numbers into three categories Medium, High, and Very High based on their likelihood of involvement in financial fraud. The classification draws from a comprehensive analysis using inputs from various platforms, including the Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre’s National Cybercrime Reporting Portal (NCRP), DoT’s Chakshu platform, and intelligence shared by banks and financial institutions.

By flagging high-risk numbers early, the tool enables banks, non-banking financial companies (NBFCs), and UPI service providers to take appropriate measures for customer protection and transaction validation.

How Advance Notification Helps Prevent Fraud

The DoT’s Digital Intelligence Unit (DIU) regularly disseminates the Mobile Number Revocation List (MNRL), which details mobile numbers disconnected due to involvement in cybercrime, failed verification, or exceeding permissible usage limits. These numbers often surface in financial fraud activities.

Given that fraudulent mobile numbers are often short-lived and verification processes can take time, a pre-emptive indicator such as the FRI becomes highly effective. Once a mobile number is flagged, it undergoes a multi-dimensional analysis, and the risk level is immediately communicated to stakeholders via the DIP system.

Early Adoption Shows Promising Results

PhonePe, one of the early adopters of the FRI system, has already integrated the tool into its PhonePe Protect feature. The platform now blocks transactions associated with Very High risk mobile numbers and alerts users via on-screen notifications. For Medium risk numbers, PhonePe plans to provide advance user warnings before processing payments.

The data from PhonePe demonstrates the effectiveness of the FRI, indicating a strong correlation between flagged numbers and actual involvement in cyber fraud.

Read More: ICAI and SEBI Join Hands to Combat Financial Fraud. 

Industry-Wide Integration Underway

The integration of FRI is gaining traction among other major UPI platforms such as Paytm and Google Pay, which collectively manage more than 90% of India’s UPI transactions. Some platforms have implemented additional transaction verification steps, such as delays and user confirmations, while banks are leveraging the shared data to proactively reduce fraud risks.

Conclusion

With UPI being the most preferred digital payment method in India, the FRI system is poised to safeguard millions of users. It offers a swift, collaborative approach to fraud detection across both telecom and financial domains.

DoT reaffirms its commitment to prevent misuse of telecom resources by deploying national-level technology-led solutions. Through continuous collaboration with digital payment platforms and financial institutions, DoT aims to refine alert systems and improve response times. As FRI integration becomes standard practice, it is expected to bring greater systemic resilience to India’s evolving digital financial infrastructure.

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