Government gets tough, takes decisive action against SMS scammers
Department of Telecommunications (DoT), in collaboration with the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), has taken decisive action to protect citizens from potential SMS fraud through the Sanchar Saathi initiative.
Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C), MHA, provided information about misuse of eight SMS Headers for sending fraudulent communications for committing cyber-crime.
Action taken by DoT:
- It was noted that more than 10,000 fraudulent messages were sent using these eight headers in the past three months.
- These SMS Headers pertained to 8 different Principal Entities (PEs). Analysis was done for other SMS headers/templates owned by these PEs.
- All the 8 PEs along with the 73 SMS Headers and 1522 SMS content templates owned by them have been blacklisted.
- None of these Principal Entities, SMS Headers or templates can now be used to send SMS through any telecom operator.
The DoT has prevented further potential victimization of citizens by blacklisting these entities. DoT reiterates its commitment to safeguarding citizens against cybercrime.
Citizens can report suspected fraud communications at Chakshu facility on Sanchar Saathi to help DoT in prevention of misuse of telecom resources for cyber-crime and financial frauds.
About Telemarketing SMSs/Calls
- Prohibition of Mobile Numbers for Telemarketing: It is not permitted to use mobile numbers for telemarketing activities. If a consumer uses their telephone connection to send promotional messages, their connection will be liable for disconnection on the first complaint, and their name and address may be blacklisted for a period of two years.
- Identifying Telemarketing Calls: Telemarketing calls can be identified by their prefixes: 180, 140, and 10-digit numbers are not permitted for telemarketing.
- Reporting Spam: To report spam, dial 1909 or use the DND (Do Not Disturb) service.
(Published by Ministry of Communications.)
