With the increasing use of digital payments, cases of cyber fraud have also increased rapidly. Crores of rupees of common people are being defrauded through fake accounts, due to which the concern of the government has increased. To deal with this threat, the central government is now emphasizing on implementing a special AI tool in banks.
Home Minister Amit Shah has appealed to all banks to fully adopt MuleHunter.ai developed by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) in their systems. The government believes that through this technology the large network of mule accounts present in the banking system can be broken. This tool was launched in December 2024.
What are mule accounts?
In colloquial language, mule means ‘mule’, which is used to carry goods. Some similar work is also done by Mule accounts. Mule accounts are actually bank accounts that are used in financial fraud. These accounts are either registered on fake name and address or they are being used by someone else. Such accounts are used to transfer money in financial fraud. Since the information given in the Mule account is not correct, it becomes difficult to track them.
MuleHunter AI?
MuleHunter AI is an advanced AI-based software, which was launched by the Reserve Bank Innovation Hub (RBIH), a subsidiary of RBI, in December 2024. Its purpose is to identify suspicious ‘mule accounts’ present in banks, which are used by cyber criminals to transfer fraudulent funds.
The RBI Governor had earlier claimed that with the help of this software, about 20,000 fake or suspicious accounts are being identified every month. Now Amit Shah wants all banks to adopt this technology, so that this number can increase further and the cases of fraud can be reduced rapidly.
In the initial phase, there was a plan to implement this system in 20 banks. But now the government is emphasizing on its widespread use, so that strict control can be achieved on cyber crime across the country.
How does this system work?
MuleHunter AI has been trained on large data sets. It analyzes the activities and transaction patterns of bank accounts. The software is designed to differentiate between the behavior of genuine and suspicious accounts.
This technology identifies specific signals and patterns commonly seen in ‘mule accounts’. As soon as any suspicious activity is detected, the system immediately flags it, so that timely action can be taken.
Special attention to security and privacy
Since this software has been developed within RBI itself, strong features related to data security and privacy have been added to it. This reduces the possibility of external attacks or misuse.
The government hopes that if all banks adopt this AI tool, a huge decline in cyber fraud cases can be seen and the hard-earned money of common people will be kept safe.
