Centre cracks down on fake international calls, blocks more than 20 numbers

Delhi. The government has reported that an indigenously developed system to identify and block international fraudulent calls displaying Indian mobile numbers has brought down such calls to about 4 lakh per day. In addition, the government asked Indian telecom companies to launch a campaign against foreign carriers or aggregators who are handing out fraudulent international calls, and has blocked more than 20 such carriers so far.
The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) recently rolled out an indigenously developed international incoming spoofed call prevention system in collaboration with all telecom service providers (TSPs). The tool proved to be a robust blocker, blocking 90 per cent of all incoming international calls that were identified as spoofed calls.
Fraudsters were using international spoofed calls displaying Indian mobile numbers (+91-xxxxx) to defraud Indian citizens and commit cybercrimes and financial frauds. Though these calls originate from within India, they are made from abroad through manipulation of the Calling Line Identity (CLI), commonly known as the phone number. With the successful implementation of the system, fraudsters residing abroad changed their modus operandi and have now started spoofing using international numbers. To counter this, the Ministry of Telecommunications has asked telecom service providers to display “International Call” on all calls coming from outside India. This helps citizens understand that since the incoming call is an “international call”, it cannot be from organisations such as the Ministry of Telecommunications, TRAI, Police, RBI, Customs, etc. According to the Ministry of Communications, one of the major service providers has already implemented this in its network and others are in the process of doing so. To tackle the threat of international spoofed calls reaching Indian citizens, the telecom ministry has asked telecom service providers (TSPs) to block traffic from such international carriers that are repeatedly sending spoofed CLI call traffic to India.
Providers such as Airtel and BSNL have blocked over 20 such carriers/aggregators that were handing over spoofed international calls. “The recently launched Sanchar Saathi App has provided a facility to citizens to report fraudulent calls. It enhances the ease of reporting any suspected fraudulent communication by allowing citizens to report such incidents directly from their mobile phone call logs,” the telecom ministry said.