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Number of Spoofed International Calls used in cyber-crimes goes down from 1.35 Crore to 6 Lakhs in just 2 months after DoT launched Spoofed Calls Prevention System

The Telecom Department said that within 24 hours of operation of the ‘International Incoming Spoofed Calls Prevention System’, about 1.35 crore or 90% of all the incoming international calls with tempered Indian phone numbers were identified as spoofed calls and blocked from reaching Indian telecom subscribers.

In a major success for the joint efforts of the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) and Telecom Service Providers (TSPs), in the month of December, the International Incoming Spoofed Calls Prevention System identified and blocked 6 lakhs spoofed calls with Indian numbers in a massive dip from 13.5 million in October. This spoof call prevention system was launched on 22nd October this year, after which the number of spoofed calls has gone down by 90% in just 2 months.

The Telecom Department said that within 24 hours of operation of the ‘International Incoming Spoofed Calls Prevention System’, about 1.35 crore or 90% of all the incoming international calls with tempered Indian phone numbers were identified as spoofed calls and blocked from reaching Indian telecom subscribers.

“Within 24 hours of operation of the system, about 1.35 crore or 90% from all the incoming international calls with tempered Indian phone numbers were identified as spoofed calls and blocked by Telecom Service Providers (TSPs) from reaching Indian telecom subscribers. In the latest reports of December 2024, the spoofed calls identified and blocked with Indian numbers have dipped to about 6 lakhs indicating that the system has successfully tackled the issue of cyber-crimes that were being conducted through calls that were being made from abroad, but the CLI [Calling Line Identity] was tempered to look as Indian number,” DoT said in a press release.  

DoT highlights new tactics being used by scamsters to defraud people

The DoT further stressed that fraudsters are now using international numbers for carrying out scams. They are impersonating government authorities by calling from international numbers starting from +8, +85, +65 etc. To tackle this, the DoT said that it has formed a task force. It further stated that the task force has recommended that Telecom Service Providers should display “International Call” to Indian subscribers when a call is made from outside the country. With this, the call receivers would be able to understand that the call is not actually made by Indian government authorities.

“However, fraudsters have now shifted their tactics and are using international numbers for their deceptive practices. It is noted that fraudsters are increasingly impersonating government authorities by calling from international numbers that do not start with +91 but start with numbers such as +8, +85, +65 etc. DoT has formed a dedicated task force comprising of various stakeholders that is actively working to address such spoofed calls. One of the recommendations of the task force was that TSPs should display “International Call” to the subscribers whenever any call from outside the country is received. This will help the users to understand that such calls cannot be from Indian Authorities or organizations like TRAI, Police, Income Tax etc,” the DoT said adding that one of the TSPs, Airtel has implemented the technical solution and has already started displaying “International Call” for all calls received from outside the country.

DoT advises citizens to exercise caution while answering unfamiliar international numbers

The DoT asked citizens that they should show caution with respect to answering calls from unfamiliar international numbers that do not start with +91 and that claim to be from government authorities of India. Citizens are advised to report such suspected fraud communications at the Chakshu facility on Sanchar Saathi.

Source: PIB

Notably, spoofing is the process of changing the Caller ID to make a call appear to be from a different number, which is done by scammers to deceive the recipient. Cybercriminals in India have been using this tactic to commit fraud by impersonating various entities such as government authorities, bank employees and even relatives or friends.

Among the common scams carried out through spoof calls are financial scams wherein fraudsters falsely claim to be from banks or financial institutions, forcing individuals into divulging sensitive information or transferring money under false pretences. Furthermore, impersonation is another major scam in which scammers impersonate police or government authorities in order to obtain money or personal information by threatening service disruption, making false arrests, or engaging in illegal activities such as drug trafficking. Furthermore, callers have threatened victims with legal action and even personal harm unless their demands are not fulfilled. 

In the recent past, numerous incidents of ‘digital arrests’ have been reported wherein scamsters defrauded people by posing as police or government investigators. Just a few days back, a 67-year-old woman and her two daughters were placed under ‘digital arrest’ for 17 days by scammers acting as CBI investigators who extorted Rs 5.5 crore from the victims. The scamsters often use sophisticated AI voice clones and visual aides to deceive their targets.

TRAI’s CNAP

Before the DoT came up with the International Incoming Spoofed Calls Prevention System, TRAI had introduced a calling name presentation (CNAP) service for Indian carriers. The goal of CNAP is to allow people to see the caller’s name (the registered user of that specific number) rather than just a number. It is similar to the services offered by the TrueCaller app. In June of this year, it was reported that various telcos, including Bharti Airtel, Reliance Jio, and Vodafone Idea, have begun CNAP trials.

In light of the growing cybercrime sophistication in the country, the DoT recently mandated that telecom providers Reliance Jio, Airtel, and Vodafone Idea play cybercrime awareness messages eight to ten times daily for the next three months. These pre-call messages, provided by the Indian Cybercrime Coordination Centre (I4C), are intended to inform people about digital arrests and other scams.

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