With the rise in digital scams, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has developed ‘Financial Fraud Risk Indicator’ (FRI). This risk-based metric classifies a mobile number to have been associated with Medium, High, or Very High risk of financial fraud. FRI thus empowers stakeholders, especially banks, Non-Banking Financial Companies (NBFCs) and Unified Payment Interface (UPI) service providers, to prioritize enforcement and take additional customer protection measures in case a mobile number has high risk. FRI is available through Digital Intelligence Platform (DIP) to the stakeholders.

This information was given by the minister of state for communications and rural development, Dr. Pemmasani Chandra Sekhar, in a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday.

RBI has issued separate advisories to banks and Payment Service Operators (PSO) for integration of FRI with their respective systems and adopt necessary real-time response protocols (like alerts, transaction delays, warnings, transaction decline etc.). Based on the Action Taken Reports (ATRs) submitted on DIP, 34 banks, financial institutions and UPI service providers have frozen 10.02 lakh bank accounts/ payment wallets and placed debit/ credit restrictions on 3.05 lakh bank accounts/ payment wallets. 

Digital Intelligence Unit (DIU) project of DoT has various constituents for curbing misuse of telecom resources for cybercrime and financial frauds. DIU project of DoT is having total outlay of Rs 228.16 crore for a period of 5 years. DIP and FRI are developed under DIU project.