The Department of Telecommunications, along with telecom providers, has made inroads to tackle the menace of spam calls faced by Indian citizens, according to a press release issued by the Ministry of Communications on Friday.
On noticing that that fraudsters were deceiving Indian citizens using international spoofed calls displaying Indian mobile numbers, the DoT developed an indigenous international incoming spoofed calls prevention system.
Spoofed calls are calls where the caller's identity is disguised or falsified. The goal is to trick the receiver into answering the call.
Through the system, the DoT managed to block 90% of the incoming spoofed international calls resembling Indian numbers. "The tool proved to be a formidable barrier that blocked 90% of all the incoming international calls that were identified as spoofed calls—approximately 1.35 crore, in just 24 hours," the Ministry of Communications said in a press release on Friday.
However, the DoT stated that the fraudsters have now changed their modus operandi by now spoofing citizens directly through international numbers.
To tackle this, the department has directed telcos to display "international calls" on all call coming from outside India. This move will help the citizens be aware of the fact that since this a call is coming from an international number, it it cannot be from organisations such as DoT, TRAI, police, RBI, customs, and the like.
In addition, the DoT has directed telcos to ban those international carriers that repeatedly send such spoofed call traffic to India. "Telecom service providers like Airtel, BSNL, RJIL etc have blocked more than 20 such carriers/aggregators who were handing over spoofed international calls," the press release said.
The DoT has also lauded the efforts made by ordinary citizens in reporting unfamiliar international numbers through the Sanchar Saathi mobile application and portal.
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