In a significant move to bolster the country’s defenses against cybercrime and financial fraud, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has officially announced that it will begin sharing Financial Fraud Risk Indicator (FRI) data with banks, NBFCs, UPI service providers, and other financial institutions. This initiative is part of the government’s broader effort to reduce financial frauds occurring through mobile-based digital transactions.
According to the DoT, the FRI metric is powered by an analytical engine developed under the Digital Intelligence Platform (DIP). It classifies mobile phone numbers into three levels of financial fraud risk — Medium, High, and Very High. This classification is based on intelligence gathered from various sources, including banks, NBFCs, the Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre’s (I4C) National Cybercrime Reporting Portal (NCRP), and the DoT’s own Chakshu portal.
Real-Time Risk Detection for Safer Transactions
The FRI tool enables financial service providers to detect and respond to risks in real time by providing advance warning indicators on suspicious phone numbers. The dynamic nature of cyber fraud — particularly the frequent change of mobile numbers by fraudsters — makes it challenging to identify and block malicious actors. The FRI system offers a practical solution by tagging these phone numbers with a visible risk level before transactions are processed.
The Digital Intelligence Unit (DIU) of the DoT will also share access to the Mobile Number Revocation List (MNRL) with financial entities. This list contains data about mobile numbers that have been recently disconnected, including specific reasons for disconnection — further enhancing fraud detection mechanisms.
Once a mobile number is flagged as suspicious by a financial stakeholder, the DIP analyzes it and shares the risk classification with other stakeholders. This instantaneous sharing mechanism ensures that all partnered institutions have access to up-to-date risk profiles of mobile numbers used in digital transactions.
Integration with Leading UPI Platforms
The DoT confirmed that major Unified Payments Interface (UPI) platforms — including Google Pay, PhonePe, and Paytm — are now working to integrate the FRI alert system into their payment processes. PhonePe has already rolled out features under its PhonePe Protect initiative, where it blocks transactions from numbers marked as Very High risk and issues proactive alerts for those marked Medium risk.
Another major, though unnamed, UPI provider has reportedly added additional safeguards. These include delaying certain transactions and requiring manual user confirmation if an alert is triggered for a potentially risky number.
Banks and non-banking financial institutions are also leveraging FRI data from DIP to strengthen their fraud detection frameworks. By embedding the risk classification directly into their internal systems, these institutions can prevent fraudulent activity before it affects end users.
Collaboration and Data-Driven Prevention
This initiative reflects a growing commitment by Indian regulatory bodies and financial institutions to combat digital payment fraud through data-driven intelligence sharing. By aggregating and analyzing signals from multiple sources — including cybercrime reports, internal fraud markers from financial institutions, and telecom data — the FRI system builds a dynamic risk map of the digital payment ecosystem.
Carrying forward the Digital India vision, the DoT’s integration of telecom and financial fraud intelligence is expected to set new benchmarks in cybersecurity for digital transactions. The move not only benefits individual consumers but also adds a layer of resilience to the national financial infrastructure by making it more difficult for fraudsters to exploit mobile-based digital platforms.