FRI Blocks Cyber Fraud Worth Over Rs 5,000 Crore

The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has reported a milestone for its fraud shield. The tool is called the Financial Fraud Risk Indicator (FRI). It was launched on 22 May 2025. In fifteen months it has helped stop suspected cyber fraud transactions worth more than Rs 5,000 crore. The announcement was made on 8 September 2026. The money was never lost, so it did not have to be traced, frozen or recovered.

How fast the savings grew

Prevention has grown nearly eight-fold because more financial institutions now use the indicator. The jump from Rs 660 crore in the first six months to Rs 5,043.73 crore by August 2026 is the figure a paper setter is most likely to pick.

What the indicator actually does

The FRI is a risk assessment framework. It tells a bank, in real time, how likely it is that a mobile number is linked to cyber crime or financial fraud. It works under the DoT's Digital Intelligence Platform (DIP). Mobile numbers are sorted into three risk classes: Medium, High and Very High. The classification draws on citizen reports made on the Sanchar Saathi platform, on the National Cybercrime Reporting Portal of the Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre, and on inputs from telecom operators, banks and other financial institutions.

Who uses the signal

The intelligence is shared through the DIP with banks, payment service providers, insurers, securities intermediaries and pension sector entities. Banks and UPI service providers already stop or flag payments to high and very high risk numbers as they happen. The Reserve Bank of India, the National Payments Corporation of India and the Securities and Exchange Board of India are partners in the effort. Protection is being widened to trading and demat accounts, to insurance policy issue and claims, and to pension accounts.

The reach of the platform

More than 1,600 organisations are now on the Digital Intelligence Platform. The department has held over twenty five training sessions for about 1,500 banks, financial institutions and regulators, because an alert is useful only if the receiving institution can act on it.