New Delhi: The Reserve Bank of India has taken steps to combat fraud by introducing the MuleHunter.AI for banks. This technology is designed to identify and eliminate mule accounts—fake accounts often used in fraudulent activities. The RBI revealed that MuleHunter.AI has already shown promising results, successfully detecting and addressing such accounts in two public sector banks.


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A mule account is a bank account used by cybercriminals to illegally siphon money. By hiding their identity, anonymous individuals open these accounts and use them to deposit money obtained through scams. Tracing money transfers from these accounts and recovering the funds becomes extremely difficult.


According to data from the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), 67.8 per cent of complaints related to cybercrime arise from online financial fraud. In such a scenario, the effective implementation of MuleHunter.AI is crucial to protecting people from bank fraud.


What is a Mule Account?


According to the RBI, a mule account is a bank account used by criminals to illegally transfer stolen money. These accounts are often opened by unsuspecting individuals who are enticed with small payments. Tracking money transfers from these accounts and recovering the stolen funds is extremely challenging.


What is MuleHunter.AI?


According to the Reserve Bank Innovation Hub, the RBI developed MuleHunter.AI after extensive discussions with banks to understand the existing methods and processes for identifying mule accounts. Current systems used to detect such accounts are often time-consuming, leaving many accounts unnoticed. To address this, the RBI collaborated with several banks and analyzed the activity patterns of 19 different types of mule accounts to develop this advanced tool.


How Does MuleHunter.AI Work?


MuleHunter.AI is an in-house AI/ML-based system that outperforms existing methods in identifying suspicious mule accounts. Using advanced machine learning algorithms, the tool analyzes transaction patterns and account-related datasets to quickly and accurately detect mule accounts.


The RBI's goal in developing this tool is to speed up the identification of fraudulent accounts, as financial fraud is increasing in both complexity and volume. The key to tackling such fraud lies in tracing where the money ultimately goes. With this new technology, banks can detect mule accounts faster and with greater precision, making the system more effective in combating fraud.