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Payment aggregators and banks are required to perform due diligence on merchants before activating them for payment acceptance. FraudTrace AI lets you screen a merchant’s settlement UPI VPA against a continuously updated database of mule accounts, fraud networks, and illegal platforms — giving your onboarding team an evidence-backed risk signal before you approve a single transaction. This guide explains how to embed that check into your merchant onboarding workflow.

When to screen

Screening at a single point is better than nothing, but a layered approach gives you the strongest coverage:
Periodic re-screening is especially important for high-volume or high-value merchants. A VPA that was clean at onboarding can be linked to fraud activity months later.

Screen the merchant’s settlement VPA

Use the single VPA lookup endpoint with the merchant’s settlement UPI VPA:
curl
A flagged response will look like this:

Onboarding decision table

Map the API response directly to an onboarding action:
A CLEARED status means the VPA is not present in the FraudTrace database at the time of screening. It is not a clearance certificate. Always use FraudTrace alongside your existing KYC, business verification, and document checks — never as a standalone signal.

Domain screening (coming soon)

For merchants who operate websites, FraudTrace will soon offer domain-level screening via the CyberTrace endpoint:
This endpoint will flag merchant domains associated with phishing pages, illegal gambling operations, and fake lending sites. Contact your account manager to join the early access programme.

Logging for audit trail

Indian payment regulations require acquirers and banks to maintain verifiable records of the due diligence performed on merchants. Log the full FraudTrace API response — not just the decision — as part of your onboarding record. At minimum, store the following fields alongside the merchant’s KYC record:
FraudTrace returns a unique request ID in the X-Request-Id response header. Store this with every screening record so you can retrieve the original API response during a regulatory audit or dispute.

Re-screening active merchants

For periodic re-screening of your active merchant portfolio, use the batch endpoint to process large lists efficiently without making hundreds of individual API calls. See Batch UPI Verification for implementation details.