The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has introduced the Financial Fraud Risk Indicator (FRI)—a risk-based metric developed as part of its Digital Intelligence Platform (DIP)—to strengthen the country's cyber fraud prevention framework. This tool is designed to help banks, non-banking financial companies (NBFCs), and digital payment platforms detect and mitigate financial fraud associated with mobile numbers.
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How the FRI System Works
The FRI classifies mobile numbers into three categories—Medium, High, or Very High risk—based on a multi-dimensional analysis of data from the National Cybercrime Reporting Portal (NCRP), DoT's Chakshu platform, and intelligence shared by financial institutions. This categorisation enables stakeholders to take precautionary action, such as delaying or declining transactions and alerting users in real-time.
"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 Ministry of Communications said on Wednesday, May 20.
According to the Ministry, the move is particularly timely, given the increasing sophistication of digital fraud. As mobile numbers used for fraudulent purposes typically remain active only for a few days, early warning signals become critical. The DoT also circulates the Mobile Number Revocation List (MNRL), which includes numbers disconnected due to cybercrime involvement, failed verification, or exceeding usage limits—many of which are linked to financial fraud.
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Early Adoption by Major UPI Players
PhonePe, one of the initial adopters of FRI, has already integrated the tool into its PhonePe Protect feature. The platform now blocks transactions involving "Very High" risk numbers and displays alerts to users. For numbers flagged with "Medium" risk, PhonePe is working to display proactive warnings prior to transaction completion. "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 Ministry said.
Other leading UPI platforms, such as Paytm and Google Pay—alongside PhonePe, accounting for over 90 percent of UPI transaction volume—are also incorporating DIP alerts. Some have implemented features such as transaction delays and mandatory user confirmations for flagged numbers. Additionally, several banks are using this data to bolster their fraud detection protocols.
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Towards a Safer Digital Financial Ecosystem
"With UPI being the most preferred payment method across India, this intervention could save millions of citizens from falling prey to cyber fraud. The FRI allows for swift, targeted, and collaborative action against suspected frauds in both telecom and financial domains," the official release said.
DoT emphasised its commitment to creating a secure telecom and digital financial ecosystem through advanced, collaborative, and technology-driven measures. The integration of FRI into customer-facing systems is expected to become an industry standard, bringing systemic resilience to India's digital financial ecosystem.
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