New Delhi: In a major move to protect citizens from cyber frauds in the country, the government on Tuesday cautioned all mobile users not to take any fake calls being received by the citizens wherein callers are threatening to disconnect their mobile numbers, or their mobile numbers are being misused in some illegal activities. The department of telecommunications (DoT) under the ministry of communications also issued an advisory to citizens in this regard.
Issuing an advisory to citizens, the ministry of communications said that the DoT had also issued advisory about WhatsApp calls from foreign origin mobile numbers (like +92-xxxxxxxxxx) impersonating government officials and duping the people. “The cyber criminals through such calls try to threaten or steal personal information to carry out cyber-crime/financial frauds,” the ministry said.
“The DoT/TRAI does not authorise anyone to make such call on its behalf and has advised people to stay vigilant and report such fraud communications at ‘Chakshu – Report Suspected Fraud Communications’ facility of Sanchar Saathi portal (www.sancharsaathi.gov.in/sfc),” the ministry added.
Such proactive reporting helps DoT in prevention of misuse of telecom resources for cyber-crime, financial frauds, etc. Last week, the government informed that the DoT, ministry of home affairs (MHA) and state police had joined hands to curb the misuse of telecom resources in cyber-crime and financial frauds. The move of the government aims to dismantle networks of fraudsters and protect citizens from digital threats.
The government had also directed telecom operators to block over 28,000 mobile handsets used in carrying cyber crimes, while 20 lakh mobile numbers associated with these handsets have to be re-verified. In case, the re-verification of the numbers fails, the same would be disconnected.
