Cyber Fraud Prevention: Govt Plans to Use AI to Track Mule Accounts, Says Amit Shah

Union Home Minister Amit Shah announced that the government plans to leverage Artificial Intelligence (AI) to identify 'mule' accounts used by cyber fraudsters to park illicit funds. During a meeting of the Parliamentary Consultative Committee for the Ministry of Home Affairs on Monday, focused on 'Cyber Security and Cyber Crime,' Shah revealed that, for national security reasons, 805 apps and 3,266 website links have been blocked based on recommendations from the Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre (I4C), the government’s dedicated cybercrime monitoring and detection body.

Amit Shah further stated that 399 banks and financial intermediaries have joined the initiative, with over six lakh suspicious data points being shared. He also highlighted that more than 19 lakh mule accounts have been identified, and suspicious transactions amounting to Rs 2,038 crore have been successfully prevented.

Shah said efforts are underway to use AI for identifying mule accounts, in coordination with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and all banks to establish a system for their detection, an official statement said.

The Home Minister assured that the government will take proactive measures to close mule accounts before they are even activated. A mule account refers to a bank account used by criminals to launder stolen funds. Shah also mentioned that a total of 1,43,000 FIRs have been registered on the I4C portal, which has been accessed by over 19 crore people.