Loading…
The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) said its Financial Fraud Risk Indicator (FRI) has prevented suspected cyber fraud losses of more than Rs 5,000 crore in the 15 months since its launch.
Cumulative savings rose from Rs 139.16 crore in August 2025 to Rs 5,043.73 crore by August 2026, with over Rs 2,000 crore of that prevented in the four months from April 2026 alone.
The FRI was launched on 22 May 2025 by DoT's Digital Intelligence Unit; it classifies mobile numbers as Medium, High or Very High Risk for likely involvement in financial fraud.
Classification draws on the I4C's National Cybercrime Reporting Portal, DoT's Chakshu platform and intelligence shared by banks and financial institutions.
Banks, NBFCs and UPI service providers use the risk flag to delay, warn on or block transactions before money leaves the customer's account.
The FRI scores a mobile number by how likely it is to be used for financial fraud, then shares that flag with banks and payment providers in real time. They can then hold, warn on or block a transaction to that number - so the money never leaves the account and does not have to be traced, frozen or recovered afterwards.
Simple Analogy: A credit score, but for how likely a phone number is to be a scam.
Developed and operates the FRI and the Digital Intelligence Platform; regulates telecom resources and their misuse.
Launched the FRI on 22 May 2025 and runs DoT's intelligence-sharing work against telecom-enabled cyber fraud.
Runs the National Cybercrime Reporting Portal (NCRP), one of the main input feeds for the FRI's classification.
GS Paper 3 > Internal Security > Cyber security and money laundering
General Awareness > Banking and Financial Awareness > Digital payments and fraud
In India, it is legally mandatory for which of the following to report on cyber security incidents? 1. Service providers 2. Data centres 3. Body corporate Select the correct answer using the code given below:
Answer: 1, 2 and 3
Financial Fraud Risk Indicator - a DoT metric classifying mobile numbers as Medium, High or Very High Risk for involvement in financial fraud.
DoT's citizen-facing platform for reporting suspected fraud communication; one of the FRI's input feeds.
Mobile Number Revocation List - the list of disconnected numbers shared through DoT's Digital Intelligence Platform alongside the FRI.
Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre, under the Ministry of Home Affairs, which runs the National Cybercrime Reporting Portal.