New Delhi: To tackle the growing menace of spoofed calls, the Central Government launched an ‘International Incoming Spoofed Calls Prevention System’, here today. The system identifies and blocks incoming international calls posing as Indian phone numbers.
However, the Government did not completely rule out the possibility of cyber crimes through spoofed calls and said there could still be cases where fraudsters succeed through other means.
The new system has been devised by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) in collaboration with the Telecom Service Providers (TSPs) to identify and block such incoming international spoofed calls from reaching Indian telecom subscribers.
“The system was made operational and it has been observed that within 24 hours of operation of the system, about 1.35 crore or 90% of all the incoming international calls with Indian phone numbers were identified as spoofed calls and blocked by TSPs from reaching Indian telecom subscribers,” the Ministry of Communications stated.
DoT said this system will help build a safe digital space and protect citizens from cybercrime.
Cybercriminals are increasingly committing cyber-crimes by making international spoofed calls displaying Indian mobile numbers (+91-xxxxxxxxx). These calls appear to be originating within India but are actually being made from abroad by manipulating the calling line identity (CLI) commonly known as the phone number.
“Indian telecom subscribers should see a significant reduction in such spoofed calls with +91-xxxxxxx numbers with the implementation of this system,” the Ministry of Communications stated.
Spoofed calls are used for financial scams, impersonating government officials, and creating panic. There have also been cases of cyber crime threatening disconnection of mobile numbers by DoT/Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) officials, fake digital arrests, drugs/narcotics in couriers, impersonation of police officials, arrests in sex racket etc.
“For such calls, you can help by reporting such suspected fraud communications at the Chakshu facility on Sanchar Saathi (www.sancharsaasthi,gov.in ). The DoT remains committed to proactively combating cybercrime,” it stated. It asked those who already lost money or became victims of cybercrime, to report the incident at the cybercrime helpline number 1930 or the website https://www.cybercrime.gov.in
Jyotiraditya M. Scindia, Minister of Communications launched the ‘International Incoming Spoofed Calls Prevention System’ in the presence of Minister of State for Communications Dr Pemmasani Chandra Sekhar. The launch ceremony was attended by the Telecom Secretary and other senior officers too.
– global bihari bureau
