Payment apps, DoT help avert Rs 200 Cr potential fraud loss: PhonePe's Rahul Chari

Payment apps PhonePe and Paytm have helped citizens avert potential financial frauds worth Rs 200 crore by using the Fraud Risk Indicator (FRI) platform developed by the Department of Telecom, Rahul Chari, Co-founder of PhonePe, said on Wednesday, October 8.

While giving a presentation to Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the inaugural session of India Mobile Congress (IMC), Chari said that by using FRI data, apps like PhonePe and Paytm have frozen more than 10 lakh accounts and wallets.

"They have blocked more than 48 lakh suspicious transactions. More than Rs 200 crore in potential financial loss has been averted. The DoT has been able to save more than that in the potential financial loss to consumers in just three-four months prior to the launch," Chari said.

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According to the breakup shared by Chari, PhonePe claims to have helped citizens avert potential financial fraud losses of around Rs 125 crore, while Paytm has helped save Rs 68 crore in the last two months.

Chari said that at present, FRI is being used primarily in the banking sector and payment services.

"But to realise the full potential of this platform, it is very important that every government department and private entity that is using the mobile number as the financial identity of the citizen must be onboarded on this platform," Chari said.

He said that the strength of the FRI platform comes from its data visibility.

"Through a public-private partnership between the DoT, other departments, as well as companies like PhonePe, Paytm and banks, we must increase the visibility of the Sanchar Saathi app and crowdsource this data so that the DoT FRI platform can get even stronger," Chari said.

He said companies like PhonePe and Paytm have their own intelligent signals. "Creating a feedback loop of these signals into the DoT FRI platform will mean that the DoT FRI platform will evolve into being one of the best cyber fraud detection platforms in the world," Chari said.