DoT launches FRI tool to flag risky mobile numbers in cyber frauds

DoT introduces Financial Fraud Risk Indicator under DIP to help banks and UPI platforms detect risky mobile numbers and prevent cyber frauds more proactively

The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) on Wednesday announced the Financial Fraud Risk Indicator (FRI), a new multi-dimensional analytical tool developed as part of its Digital Intelligence Platform (DIP), to help financial institutions with advanced actionable intelligence for cyber fraud prevention.

FRI enables enhanced intelligence sharing with banks, UPI service providers and financial institutions, which in turn help tackle cyber fraud and financial crime.

 

It is a risk-based metric that classifies a mobile number in three categories: Medium, High, or Very High risk of financial fraud.

 

The move is set to help banks, non-banking financial companies, and UPI service providers prioritise enforcement and take additional customer protection measures in case a mobile number has high risk.

 

As one of the initial adopters of FRI, digital payment platform PhonePe has used it to decline transactions linked to Very High FRI mobile numbers and display an on-screen alert as part of PhonePe protect feature.

 

For Medium FRI numbers, PhonePe is working to display a proactive user warning before allowing the transaction, the DoT said. PhonePe, Paytm and Google Pay, who collectively account for over 90 per cent of UPI transactions, have begun integrating DIP alerts into their systems, the DoT said. 

 

Fraud detection

 

“This classification is an outcome of inputs obtained from various stakeholders including reporting on Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C’s), National Cybercrime Reporting Portal (NCRP), DoT’s Chakshu platform, and intelligence shared by banks and financial institutions,” the department said.

 

The DoT regularly shares the list of mobile numbers that were disconnected for being involved in cyber-crime, failing re-verification, and exceeding prescribed limits. These numbers are also usually used for financial frauds.

 

As the life of a mobile number that is misused in cyber frauds is generally few days, and full verification can take several days, an advance indicator on risk associated with such numbers is very useful, the DoT believes.

Thus, as soon as a suspected mobile number is flagged by a stakeholder, it undergoes multi-dimensional analysis, classifying it as Medium, High, or Very High financial risk associated with it, and shares it immediately with all stakeholders through DIP.