The Government of India will now block the UPI transaction launched towards some mobile numbers. The Department of Telecommunications (DOT) on Wednesday launched a new financial fraud risk indicator (FRI). This service will analyze the mobile number and block transactions in flagged numbers in the form of high risk. According to the government, this new equipment is designed to detect and prevent financial crimes in the country.

The DOT states that the new FRI system is part of its comprehensive digital intelligence platform (DIP), which aims to create a safe digital ecosystem for financial transactions. The primary objective of FRI is asked to assist banks, non-banking financial companies (NBFCs), and UPI service providers-which include prominent players such as Phonpe, Paytm and Google Pay-in identifying risky transactions before they are completed. In particular, these platforms simultaneously manage more than 90 percent of the UPI transaction volume in India.

How will financial fraud risk indicator work?

The DOT states that the FRI system will mark the mobile numbers that are associated with cybercrime, failed verification processes or regulatory violations. This will then classify these suspected numbers into three levels of risk: moderate, high and much more. DOT states that this classification of mobile numbers will be done using data of intelligence input from National Cybercrime Reporting Portal (NCRP), Dot’s Chakshu platform and banks and other financial institutions. This risk profile is shared with real -time with the stakeholders, allowing them to respond rapidly.

“Dot’s Digital Intelligence Unit (DIU) also shares a mobile number cancellation list (MNRL), which highlights the disconnected number, re -verification, or regulatory violations due to participation in cyber crime. Failing numbers related to fraud is usually a short life period, FRI is a significant initial warning.”

If a user tries to transfer funds to the mobile number tagged as a “very high risk”, the UPI app will automatically block the transaction and display a warning warning. Meanwhile, for numbers tagged as moderate risk, users will be shown a careful notification and may be asked to manually confirm the transaction.

The platform is also offering similar protective measures, such as delay in flagged transactions and motivate users for additional confirmation.

In particular, FRI initiative occurs at a time when cyber fraud incidents occur on a large scale in India. Frauds are using different methods to cheat people and often use new active SIM cards to run scams, disintegrate them soon, which makes them difficult to detect time for law enforcement. To compete this, Dot’s Digital Intelligence Unit (DIU) is also maintaining a mobile number cancellation list (MNRL). This data is shared with financial institutions and includes numbers that have been cut for fraud -related reasons.