India’s Department of Telecommunications reports that its Financial Fraud Risk Indicator has successfully prevented more than Rs 5,000 crore in suspected cyber fraud losses since its launch in May 2025, marking a major shift towards proactive fraud prevention.
India’s Department of Telecommunications says its Financial Fraud Risk Indicator has helped prevent more than Rs 5,000 crore in suspected cyber fraud losses in the 15 months since it was launched in May 2025.
The ministry said the cumulative figure rose sharply from Rs 139.16 crore in August 2025 to Rs 5,043.73 crore by August 2026, with more than Rs 2,000 crore of suspected losses stopped in the four months from April 2026 alone. It said the savings reflect money that never left customers’ accounts, avoiding the slower work of tracing and freezing funds after a fraud has already taken place.
The Financial Fraud Risk Indicator is part of the DoT’s Digital Intelligence Platform and is designed to flag mobile numbers that may be linked to cybercrime or financial fraud. According to an earlier government announcement, the system classifies numbers as medium, high or very high risk using inputs from the National Cybercrime Reporting Portal, the DoT’s Chakshu platform, and intelligence shared by banks and other financial institutions.
Once a number is flagged, the risk signal can be shared with banks, non-banking financial companies, payment providers, insurers, securities intermediaries and pension-sector entities. Industry reports have said the alerts can be used in customer onboarding, transaction monitoring and fraud checks, allowing institutions to delay, warn about or block suspicious payments before the transfer is completed.
The DoT says the model marks a shift from reacting after losses occur to stopping fraud at the point of initiation. That matters because stolen money can move quickly through mule accounts, making recovery difficult; by contrast, the department says an FRI check takes only a fraction of a second when a payment is being made.
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