New Delhi: Google Pay has integrated with the Department of Telecommunications’ (DoT) Fraud Risk Indicator (FRI), a tool that flags mobile numbers based on their likelihood of being linked to financial scams, communications minister Jyotiraditya M. Scindia said on Friday.
Telecom Secretary Neeraj Mittal told HT that Google integrated its systems with the FRI on Thursday.
The integration comes less than a week after HT reported on October 11 that Google Pay (GPay), responsible for nearly 30–35% of India’s UPI transactions, had not yet linked with the FRI, unlike its competitors PhonePe and Paytm.
Google at the time had said that it had integrated FRI into its systems, a claim that was contradicted by senior officials at DoT, including the telecom secretary.
Also Read: UPI Is changing in August 2025: 5 rules you should know
A day after HT’s report, Google published a blog post saying it had integrated with systems such as the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI)’s fraud management tools, the National Cybercrime Portal (NCP), as well as DoT’s FRI to strengthen real-time threat detection.
Google Pay had shared its “action taken report” on Thursday night, which said it has so far helped save ₹90 lakh using FRI, a DoT official aware of the development said.
This official added that Google had initially sought more time for integration but fast-tracked the process after the matter drew attention.
Also Read: Head of UT police departments can now intercept calls: DoT
The FRI, developed by DoT, classifies mobile numbers by risk level to help digital payment platforms detect and block fraudulent transactions. Medium-risk numbers trigger warnings to users, while high and very high-risk ones can lead to transaction blocks.
At the India Mobile Congress earlier this month, DoT officials had said that PhonePe and Paytm together helped citizens avert potential financial fraud losses of around ₹193 crore within two months of integration with the FRI.
DoT is of the view that with UPI now the go-to way to pay across India, FRI could help millions of people avoid falling into cyber fraud traps, with cybersecurity incidents rising from 1.029 million in 2022 to 2.268 million in 2024.
The article will be updated once Google responds to HT’s emails.
About the Author
