Department of Telecommunications introduced Financial Fraud Risk Indicator

Posted 22 May 2025

2 min read

The Indicator allows for swift, targeted, and collaborative action against suspected frauds in both telecom and financial domains.

What is Financial Fraud Risk Indicator (FRI)?

It is a risk-based metric that classifies a mobile number to have been associated with Medium, High, or Very High risk of financial fraud.
- This classification is an outcome of inputs obtained from: National Cybercrime Reporting Portal (NCRP), DoT’s Chakshu facility and Digital Intelligence Platform (DIP) and Intelligence shared by banks and financial institutions.
It empowers stakeholders such as banks, NBFCs, and UPI service providers to prioritize enforcement and take additional customer protection measures in case a mobile number have high risk.

Between Financial Year 2020 and 2024, Approx. ₹3,207 crore was lost due to 5,82,000 cases of cyber fraud.
Some common methods of financial frauds are: KYC Fraud, Customer Care Fraud, UPI Fraud, Card Fraud, Digital Arrest Fraud, Investment Frauds and Get Rich Quick Schemes, etc.

Digital Intelligence Platform (DIP): Secure and integrated platform for real time intelligence sharing, information exchange and coordination among the stakeholders, i.e., Law Enforcement Agencies (LEAs), banks and financial institutions, etc.
Chakshu facility on Sanchar Saathi portal: Facilitates citizens to report suspected fraud communication received over call, SMS or WhatsApp with the intention of defrauding like KYC expiry or update of bank account, etc.
Mulehunter: AI-based tool launched by the RBI for identification of money mule and advised the banks and financial institutions for its uses.
Citizen Financial Cyber Fraud Reporting and Management System: Launched in 2021 under I4C, for immediate reporting of financial frauds and to stop siphoning off funds by the fraudsters.
E-Zero FIR: I4C has introduced a new system that automatically converts financial cybercrime complaints with a fraud value above ₹10 lakh, and registered on the 1930 helpline or cybercrime.gov.in portal, into FIRs.