Worried About UPI Scams? Govt’s New Fraud Prevention Tool Is Here – Know How It Works

The Department of Telecommunications ( DoT ) launched the Financial Fraud Risk Indicator ( FRI ) on Wednesday, a tool designed to alert banks and UPI apps like PhonePe, Paytm, and Google Pay about mobile numbers with a high risk of fraud , aiming to strengthen cyber fraud prevention across India's financial and telecom ecosystems by identifying risky numbers and enabling quicker action against potential scams. The FRI system uses data from multiple sources to label mobile numbers as having a Medium, High, or Very High risk of being linked to financial scams, allowing financial institutions to double-check or block transactions made to flagged numbers.