- Why in news
- On 8 September 2026, the Department of Telecommunications said its Financial Fraud Risk Indicator (FRI) has prevented over ₹5,000 crore of suspected cyber fraud losses in fifteen months since its 22 May 2025 launch.
- What it is
- The Financial Fraud Risk Indicator is a risk-assessment framework built by the Department of Telecommunications. It tells financial institutions in real time how likely a mobile number is to be linked to cyber fraud. It runs on DoT's Digital Intelligence Platform and aims to stop fraud before money leaves the account.
- Developer and launch
- FRI was developed by DoT and launched on 22 May 2025 under its Digital Intelligence Platform.
- Risk categories
- DIP classifies mobile numbers into three risk levels: Medium, High and Very High.
- Data inputs
- Inputs come from Sanchar Saathi citizen reports, the Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre's National Cybercrime Reporting Portal, and telecom operators, banks and financial institutions.
- Digital Intelligence Platform
- DIP was launched in 2024 and has over 1,600 stakeholders. It also shares the Mobile Number Revocation List (MNRL) of disconnected numbers.
- Related DoT tools
- FRI is part of DoT's citizen-protection suite: Sanchar Saathi, Chakshu, CEIR and ASTR.
Don’t confuse with FRI vs MNRL: FRI grades numbers by fraud-risk level. MNRL is a list of numbers already disconnected, for cybercrime, failed re-verification or breach of connection limits.
Don’t confuse with Sanchar Saathi vs NCRP: Sanchar Saathi is DoT's citizen portal and app for telecom misuse. The National Cybercrime Reporting Portal is run by the Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre (I4C) and takes cybercrime complaints; the helpline is 1930.
Science and technology: 57 Prelims questions since 2013; most test the concept behind the news, not the news itself. In Mains, 12 news-triggered questions.
Why it matters
- Shifts fraud control from recovery after loss to prevention at the point of payment, using telecom data.
- Brings telecom, banking, securities, insurance and pension players onto one intelligence-sharing platform.
Problems
- Wrongly flagged numbers could block genuine transactions, so there must be a way to correct errors.
- Fraud proceeds move fast through mule accounts, and fraudsters can switch numbers quickly.
Way forward
- Extend FRI to securities, insurance and pension entities, and train institutions to act on the signals.
- Keep strong data-protection safeguards and a grievance process for flagged users.
Put in your answer
Capacity building: DoT held over 25 training sessions covering 1,500 banks, financial institutions and regulators.
- 2017Mains GS3 · Q9Discuss cyber attack threats and the security framework to prevent them.
- 2019Mains GS3 · Q10Explain CyberDome Project and its use in controlling internet crimes.
- 2020Mains GS3 · Q9Discuss types of cyber crimes and measures to fight the menace.
UPSC’s own questions that come close to this issue, from our Prelims and Mains banks.
No practice question for this one; the card may still help an answer. Why: Lasting DoT tool against cyber fraud with launch date and figures, but UPSC rarely sets questions on such data.
Worth revising until Prelims 2028: most news questions come within two years of the event.