Financial scammers are facing a formidable new foe: the Department of Telecommunications’ Financial Fraud Risk Indicator (FRI). Revealed by Minister of State Dr. Chandrashekar Pemmasani in Parliament, this tool is transforming how India tackles mobile-linked financial crimes.
FRI employs a nuanced risk metric to tag numbers associated with varying fraud intensities, from moderate to extreme. Banks and UPI operators leverage this intelligence to probe and mitigate risks in their networks.
Early successes are remarkable—with interventions like transaction halts and user warnings, stakeholders have prevented losses exceeding ₹1,000 crore. This proactive stance is reshaping fraud prevention.
Complementing FRI, the Sanchaar Saathi initiative stands as a citizen empowerment hub. Available online and on apps, it facilitates fraud reporting, connection audits, lost device declarations, and IMEI verifications.
Notable outcomes: 8.33 lakh handsets recovered, 2.24 crore rogue connections severed on user complaints, and 39.44 lakh lines blocked from 7.7 lakh scam alerts. Telecom providers have also neutralized international spoofed calls displaying Indian numbers, achieving a 99% drop in attempts.
These comprehensive reforms signal a new era of vigilance, protecting millions from the perils of cyber fraud and misuse of telecom resources.