Govt will now decline UPI transactions to certain numbers, here is what you should know
The Indian government will now block UPI transactions initiated towards certain mobile numbers. The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) on Wednesday launched a new Financial Fraud Risk Indicator (FRI). This service will analyse mobile numbers and block transactions to numbers flagged as high-risk. According to the government, this new tool is designed to proactively detect and prevent financial crimes in the country.advertisementThe DoT says that the new FRI system is part of its broader Digital Intelligence Platform (DIP), aimed at creating a secure digital ecosystem for financial transactions. The primary objective of the FRI is said to be assisting banks, non-banking financial companies (NBFCs), and UPI service providers — including major players like PhonePe, Paytm, and Google Pay — in identifying risky transactions before they are completed. Notably, these platforms together manage over 90 per cent of the UPI transaction volume in India.How will the Financial Fraud Risk Indicator work?The DoT explains that the FRI system will flag mobile numbers that have been reported or linked to cybercrime, failed verification processes, or regulatory breaches. It will then categorise these suspicious numbers into three levels of risk: Medium, High, and Very High. DOT explains that this categorisation of the mobile numbers will be done using data from the National Cybercrime Reporting Portal (NCRP), the DoT's Chakshu platform, and intelligence inputs from banks and other financial entities. This risk profile is shared in near real-time with stakeholders, allowing them to respond swiftly.advertisement
If a user attempts to transfer money to a mobile number tagged as 'Very High Risk,' the UPI app will automatically block the transaction and display a warning alert. Meanwhile, for numbers tagged as Medium risk, users will be shown a cautionary notification and may be asked to confirm the transaction manually.The platform is also introducing similar protective measures, such as delaying flagged transactions and prompting users for additional confirmation.Notably, the FRI initiative comes at a time when cyber fraud incidents are rampant in India. Fraudsters are using different ways to trick people and often use newly activated SIM cards to run scams, deactivating them soon after, making it difficult for law enforcement to trace them in time. To counter this, the DoT's Digital Intelligence Unit (DIU) is also maintaining a Mobile Number Revocation List (MNRL). This data is said to be shared with financial institutions and includes numbers that have been disconnected for fraud-related reasons.Officials say that as the lifespan of fraudulent mobile numbers is typically short, early detection is crucial. A number flagged by one platform can now be assessed and blocked across multiple UPI apps almost immediately.
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