Block incoming international spoofed calls displaying Indian numbers: Govt to DoT

“It has been reported that fraudsters are making international spoofed calls displaying Indian mobile numbers to Indian citizens and committing cyber-crime and financial frauds. These calls appear to be originating within India but being made by the cyber-criminals 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/narcotics in courier, impersonation as the government and police officials, disconnections of mobile numbers by DoT/Trai officials, etc,” the ministry of communications said in a statement.

Last week, the DoT had issued directives to the telecom operators to carry out immediate re-verification of 6.80 lakh mobile numbers within 60 days that are suspected to have been obtained using invalid, non-existent, or fake documents. The department has flagged around 6.80 lakh mobile connections as potentially fraudulent after advanced AI-driven analysis. “Therefore, the DoT and TSPs have devised a system to identify and block such incoming international spoofed calls from reaching any Indian telecom subscriber,” the ministry said.

The incoming international spoofed calls with Indian landline numbers are already being blocked by the TSPs as per the directions issued by DoT. As safety and security of the users is an integral part of vision of digital India, the DoT has already taken many initiatives including citizen centric Sanchar Saathi portal to protect telecom users. “Despite best efforts, there may still be some fraudsters who succeed through other means and for such calls, you can help everybody by reporting such suspected fraud communications at the Chakshu facility on Sanchar Saathi,” the statement added.