Lok Sabha Question No. 915 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2026-02-04
Subject: Financial Fraud Risk Indicator (FRI)
Ministry: COMMUNICATIONS
Asked by: Shri Damodar Agrawal, Shri Neeraj Maurya, Shri Devesh Shakya, Shri Shankar Lalwani, Smt. Shobhanaben Mahendrasinh Baraiya, Dr. Rajesh Mishra, Smt. Aparajita Sarangi, Shri Balabhadra Majhi, Shri Tejasvi Surya, Shri Chandra Prakash Joshi, Shri Yaduveer Wadiyar

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATIONS DEPARTMENT OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS

LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 915 TO BE ANSWERED ON 4 TH  FEBRUARY, 2026

FINANCIAL FRAUD RISK INDICATOR (FRI)

## †915.   SHRI TEJASVI SURYA:

DR. RAJESH MISHRA:

SHRI NEERAJ MAURYA:

SMT. SHOBHANABEN MAHENDRASINH BARAIYA:

SHRI DEVESH SHAKYA:

SHRI BALABHADRA MAJHI:

SHRI YADUVEER WADIYAR:

SHRI DAMODAR AGRAWAL:

SMT. APARAJITA SARANGI:

SHRI CHANDRA PRAKASH JOSHI:

SHRI SHANKAR LALWANI:

Will the Minister of COMMUNICATIONS be pleased to state:

- (a) the  measures  taken  by  the  Government  to  prevent  the  misuse  of  telecommunications resources and to protect against cyber fraud;
- (b) the outcomes achieved by the Government through initiatives such as Sanchar Saathi, the financial Fraud Risk Indicator (FRI) and the Digital Intelligence Platform in preventing the misuse of telecommunications resources and safeguarding against cyber fraud including the number of cases detected, blocked and resolved in the State of Odisha;
- (c) the extent and the manner in which coordination is being undertaken by the Government with banks and law enforcement agencies for real-time detection of fraud and prompt action with specific details of such coordination mechanisms joint action undertaken in Odisha;
- (d) the steps taken by the Government to strengthen the resilience of telecommunications systems using indigenous technologies such as Broadcasting Cell during disasters and to strengthen public warning systems; and whether those systems have been implemented, listed or operationalised in disaster-prone areas of Odisha; and
- (e) the future  roadmap proposed by the Government to further strengthen digital  trust, cyber security and citizen awareness in the rapidly expanding telecommunications ecosystem?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF STATE FOR COMMUNICATIONS AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT (DR. PEMMASANI CHANDRA SEKHAR)

(a) to (c) Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has undertaken the following measures to prevent the misuse of telecommunications resources and to protect citizens against cyber fraud on pan India basis including Odisha:

- i. DoT has  developed  Sanchar  Saathi,  a  citizen  centric  initiative,  available  as  web  portal  ( www.sancharsaathi.gov.in ) and mobile App,  which facilitates citizens to report suspected fraud  communications,  to  know  mobile  connections  in  their  name,  to  report  lost/  stolen mobile handsets, to check genuineness of mobile handset etc. Through Sanchar Saathi, 8.33 lakh  lost/  stolen  mobile  handsets  have  been  recovered,  2.24  crore  mobile  connections, reported by the citizens as 'Not My Number' or 'Not Required', have been disconnected and 39.44 lakh mobile connections have been disconnected based on 7.7 lakh inputs provided by the citizens related to suspected fraud communications.
- ii. DoT and Telecom Service Providers (TSPs) have devised a system to identify and block incoming  international  spoofed  calls  displaying  Indian  mobile  numbers.  The  system  has resulted in almost 99% reduction in such call attempts.
- iii. DoT has developed an indigenous Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Big data Analytics tool ASTR to identify SIMs taken by same person in different names. Based on ASTR, more than 88 lakh mobile connections have been disconnected failing reverification.
- iv. DoT has established Digital Intelligence Platform (DIP), a secure online platform, for bidirectional  information  sharing  with  stakeholders  for  prevention  of  misuse  of  telecom resources in cyber-crimes and financial frauds. More than 1200 organizations have been onboarded on DIP including central security agencies, 36 State/UT Police, Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C), 1100 Banks, Unified Payments Interface (UPI) service providers, Payment System Operators (PSOs), Telecom Service Providers (TSPs), WhatsApp etc.
- v. DoT has developed Financial Fraud Risk Indicator (FRI) which is a risk-based metric that classifies a mobile number to have been associated with medium, high, or very high risk of financial fraud. Based on FRI, the stakeholders like Banks and UPI service providers initiate necessary action as per their analysis on the associated accounts /profiles in their respective domain.  As  reported  by  stakeholders,  total  fraud  amount  prevented  based  on  transaction decline and alert/notifications given to the citizens is more than ₹1000 crores.

(d) Public  warning  systems  for  disaster  management  have  been  strengthened  through  the nationwide  implementation  of  Common  Alerting  Protocol  (CAP)-based  integrated  alert  system, using  indigenous  solutions,  enabling  timely,  geo-targeted,  and  multilingual  dissemination  of emergency  alerts  in  close  coordination  with  disaster  management  authorities,  alert  generating agencies and alert disseminating agencies including TSPs.

(e) DoT has made a T-CSIRT framework which is sectoral incident response and cyber security coordination  function  for  telecommunication  ecosystem.  Its  core  purpose  is  to  enable  timely detection, analyze, coordinate and mitigate cyber incidents and vulnerabilities impacting telecom networks of TSPs, also comprising of Critical Telecom Infrastructure.

DoT  is  actively  promoting  digital  safety  and  preventing  telecom-related  frauds  through widespread  multilingual  awareness  campaigns  including  social  media  platforms,  news  articles, digital  screens,  hoardings  in  public  spaces,  TV  &  radio  messages,  SMS  campaigns,  student volunteers through Sanchar Mitra scheme etc.

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