Department of Telecommunications Alert Over Fake Calls, Cyber Crimes

Mumbai: The Department of Telecommunications (DoT), Ministry of Communications, has issued an advisory to citizens not to take fake calls being received by citizens wherein callers are threatening to disconnect their mobile numbers or their mobile numbers are being misused in some illegal activities.

“Cyber criminals through such calls try to threaten or steal personal information to carry out frauds. The DoT advise people to stay vigilant and report such fraud communications at the ‘Chakshu – Report Suspected Fraud Communications’ facility of the Sanchar Saathi portal (www.sancharsaathi.gov.in/sfc),” the advisory stated.

Citizens are advised to report crimes at helpline no 1930 or www.cybercrime.gov.in. Under the CHAKSHU facility, 52 principal entities, involved in sending malicious and phishing SMSs to the citizens have been blacklisted. 700 SMS content templates have been deactivated. 348 mobile handsets blacklisted on a pan-India basis across all telecom operators. 10,834 suspected mobile numbers were flagged for re-verification to the telecom operators out of which 8272 mobile connections disconnected failing re-verification till April 30, the advisory stated, adding, that 1.86 lakh mobile handsets were blocked across India.