To combat cyber-enabled financial frauds, the Union government on Tuesday announced a major technology-driven initiative with the Indian cybercrime coordination centre (I4C) under the ministry of home affairs (MHA), signing a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Reserve Bank Innovation Hub (RBIH) to deploy artificial intelligence (AI) for detecting and eliminating mule accounts.
Union minister for home affairs Amit Shah says mule accounts remain one of the biggest obstacles in curbing cybercrimes and described the collaboration as a major step towards building a 'cyber secure Bharat'.
“Mule accounts are big hurdles in curbing cybercrimes. Today, the I4C under MHA signed an MoU with RBIH unleashing the power of Artificial Intelligence to combat cyber fraud,” Mr
Shah says in a post on X.
“The move will swiftly detect and cull hidden mule accounts by feeding the data from the I4C's Suspect Registry to the AI-driven fraud detection system and serve the citizens as their next-gen shield against cybercrime,” he added.
According to MHA, the agreement aims to strengthen cooperation between I4C and RBIH in areas such as fraud risk intelligence sharing, analytical support, and operational coordination to improve proactive fraud detection and prevention mechanisms across the banking and digital payments ecosystem.
Officials say the partnership would enable the sharing of mule account-related intelligence and suspect identifiers from the I4C’s suspect registry to enhance AI-driven fraud detection systems such as MuleHunter.ai deployed across banks.
Under the collaboration, RBIH will utilise datasets shared by I4C for training and improving artificial intelligence-based fraud-risk assessment models, including MuleHunter.ai, to identify suspicious banking activity and hidden mule account networks more quickly.
Mule accounts are bank accounts used by cybercriminals to transfer or launder money obtained through online fraud, phishing scams and digital payment crimes, often using unsuspecting individuals or fake identities.
The MHA says the initiative is expected to significantly strengthen the country’s capability to identify and dismantle cyber fraud networks operating through the financial system.
Officials say the collaboration is expected to enhance trust in digital banking and payment systems by improving the speed and accuracy of fraud detection while enabling coordinated action between law enforcement agencies and financial institutions.
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