Telecom fraud: DoT disconnects over 3.4 cr mobiles, blocks 17 lakh WhatsApp accounts
New Delhi, March 21 (IANS) In an effort to combat telecom fraud, the government on Friday said it has disconnected more than 3.4 crore mobile phones while blocking 3.19 lakh IMEI numbers to date through the Sanchar Saathi portal.
The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) said that with the help of AI and Big Data, it also disengaged 16.97 lakh WhatsApp accounts.
Over 20,000 bulk SMS senders were also blacklisted as part of DoT’s ‘Sanchar Saathi initiative, said Dr. Pemmasani Chandra Sekhar, Minister of State for Communications and Rural Development, in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha.
Through the Sanchar Saathi portal, the government facilitates citizens to report suspected fraud communications on Chakshu facility.
DoT then carries out several analysis and takes action on such telecom resources that have been found linked to misuse, said the minister.
Rather than acting on individual reported suspected fraud communications, DoT uses the crowd sourced data to carry out analysis and to zero down on misuse of telecom resources.
The Department uses AI based tool and big data analysis to identify suspected mobile connections taken on fake documents.
Further, DoT and telecom service providers (TSPs) have devised a system for near real time identification and blocking of incoming international spoofed calls displaying Indian mobile numbers that appear to be originating from India, said the minister.
Meanwhile, telecom service providers have blacklisted 1,150 entities/individuals and disconnected more than 18.8 lakh resources.
The actions led to a significant reduction in the complaints against unregistered telemarketers (UTMs) — from 1,89,419 in August 2024 to 1,34,821 in January 2025.
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) amended the Telecom Commercial Communications Customer Preference Regulations (TCCCPR), 2018 on February 12.
A customer can now make a complaint about spam/unsolicited commercial communication (UCC) within seven days of receiving spam as compared to earlier three-day time limit.
The time limit for taking action by the access providers against the UCC from unregistered senders has been reduced from 30 days to 5 days, according to the amendments.
To ensure prompt action against the senders of UCC, the criterion for taking action against them has been revised and made more stringent.
—IANS
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