New Delhi: Continuing its war against cyber crime and fraud, the government today issued another advisory asking citizens to report “incoming international calls but displaying Indian mobile numbers” on the portal called Sanchar Saathi, started by the Department of Telecom.
“It has been reported that fraudsters are making international spoofed calls displaying Indian mobile numbers to Indian citizens and committing cybercrime and financial fraud. These calls appear to be originating within India but being made by cybercriminals from abroad by manipulating the calling line identity (CLI). Such international spoofed calls have been misused in recent cases of fake digital arrests, FedEx scams, drugs and narcotics in couriers, impersonation as government and police officials, disconnections of mobile numbers by DoT/TRAI officials, etc.,” the DoT said in a statement.
This comes days after the DoT asked telecom service providers to verify and block more than 6.80 lakh mobile connections, which appear to be fraud KYC.
The DoT and TSPs have devised a system to identify and block such incoming international spoofed calls from reaching any Indian telecom subscriber. Now directions have been issued to the TSPs for the blocking of such incoming international spoofed calls.
The incoming international spoofed calls with Indian landline numbers are already being blocked by the TSPs as per the directions issued by the DoT.
"Despite our best efforts, there may still be some fraudsters who succeed through other means. For such calls, you can help everybody by reporting such suspected fraud communications at the Chakshu facility on Sanchar Saathi,” the DoT said.
As safety and security of the users are integral parts of the vision of Digital India, DoT has already taken many initiatives, including the citizen-centric Sanchar Saathi portal (https:ancharsaathi.gov.in/), to protect telecom users.