DoT cautions against taking ‘calls threatening to disconnect mobile’

May 15, 2024 18 Views No Comment

• Says Dept or TRAI do not authorise anyone to make such call
• Urges for reporting fraud communications on Sanchar Saathi portal

New Delhi, May 15 (MExN): The Department of Telecommunications (DoT), Union Ministry of Communications on Tuesdays issued an advisory urging citizens to be cautious of fake calls threatening to disconnect their mobile numbers or allegations of their phone being misuse in illegal activities.

Cyber criminals through such calls try to threaten or steal personal information to carry out cyber-crime or financial frauds and the DoT or TRAI (Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) does not authorise anyone to make such call on its behalf, stated the advisory issued via PIB.

The DoT further cautioned citizens to be wary of about WhatsApp calls from foreign origin mobile numbers such as +92-xxxxxxxxxx, impersonating government officials and duping the people.

Stay vigilant and report such fraud communications at ‘Chakshu – Report Suspected Fraud Communications’ facility of Sanchar Saathi portal (www.sancharsaathi.gov.in/sfc), it said.

Such proactive reporting helps DoT in prevention of misuse of telecom resources for cyber-crime, financial frauds, etc, the advisory added.

The DoT also advised citizens to report at cyber-crime helpline number 1930 or www.cybercrime.gov.in in case a person is already a victim of cyber-crime or financial fraud.

Sanchar Saathi
Meanwhile, the DoT informed that various measure have been taken to combat suspected fraud communications and to curb cybercrime activities.

On such measure is Sanchar Saathi portal (www.sancharsaathi.gov.in) , a citizen centric initiative of DoT to “empower mobile subscribers, strengthen their security and increase awareness about citizen centric initiatives of the Government.”

Among others, it facilitates citizens for reporting suspected fraud communication with various modules like Chakshu for reporting suspected fraud communications with the intention of defrauding telecom service users; and CEIR, which facilitates tracing of the lost or stolen mobile devices.

Through KYM (Know Your Mobile), citizens can check the validity of their mobile even before buying the device while TAFCOP, among others, facilitates mobile subscribers to check the number of mobile connections taken in their name.

RICWIN module facilitates citizens to report the incoming international calls received with local Indian number.

As per the DoT, under Chakshu, 52 Principal entities involved in sending malicious and phishing SMSs to the citizens have been blacklisted while 700 SMS content templates have been deactivated.

A total of 348 mobile handsets blacklisted on pan- India basis across all telecom operators, it said.

Further, a total of 10,834 suspected mobile numbers flagged for re-verification to the telecom operators out of which 8272 mobile connections disconnected failing re-verification till April 30.

A total 1.86 lakh mobile handsets blocked on pan India basis for involvement in cybercrime/financial frauds, the DoT added.

As per CEIR data available on the Sanchar Saathi portal, a total of 266 had been blocked in Nagaland, while 193 were traced and 21 were recovered.

Under TAFCOP, a total of 10,485 request for verification of mobiles numbers were received from the North-East (excluding Assam) and out of those, 8283 were resolved. A total of 2202 requests were shown to be in progress.