Outlook Business Desk
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) introduced MuleHunter.ai, an AI and machine learning-based model during its last MPC meet. Its a cutting-edge AI/ML-based model designed to detect and neutralize money mule accounts, offering a smarter, faster solution to the growing challenge of financial fraud in India’s banking sector.
Money mule accounts are used by criminals to launder illicit funds, often involving innocent individuals who are either deceived or coerced into opening accounts for fraudulent activities. These accounts are often interconnected, making it difficult to trace and recover stolen money.
Banks have traditionally relied on rule-based detection systems to identify mule accounts, but these systems are often insufficient due to high false positives and slow response times, leaving many frauds undetected. In Q2FY22, 67.8% of cybercrime complaints were related to online financial frauds, highlighting the urgent need for more effective solutions.
RBI collaborated with banks to develop MuleHunter.ai which utilizes machine learning algorithms to analyze transactional data, identifying suspicious behavior more accurately and swiftly than traditional methods. The AI model is based on 19 distinct patterns of mule account behavior.
MuleHunter.ai functions as an infrastructure-level solution, gathering and analyzing data from participating banks and payment system operators. The AI engine conducts cross-institutional data analysis to identify fraud patterns, including money laundering and illicit fund transfers
MuleHunter.ai is designed to reduce digital fraud by enabling quicker identification and neutralization of mule accounts, the benefits of which, include higher detection accuracy through advanced algorithms, faster response times with real-time actions to block fraudulent accounts, scalability to manage increasing transaction volumes, continuous learning to adapt to evolving fraud techniques
MuleHunter.ai represents the RBI’s ongoing efforts to strengthen India’s financial security. The system is set to play a key role in combating financial crime by utilizing advanced AI and machine learning, positioning India as a global leader in leveraging technology for fraud prevention