Govt makes fresh bid to rein in pesky callers, phone frauds

NEW DELHI: With not much success in controlling pesky calls and financial frauds over mobile networks, the

government

is seeking to get stricter on the menace and has decided to impose penalty on the tele-marketers, while disconnecting resources in case of repeat violations.


The government is also setting up a Digital Intelligence Unit (DIU) to coordinate with various stakeholders when investigating fraudulent activities that are conducted using telecom resources, communications and IT minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said on Monday.

Concerned over the rising instances of unwanted calls, messages and frauds perpe trated through mobile networks, even for those who have registered for the Do Not Disturb (DND) service,

Prasad

chaired a high-level meeting to tackle the issue which has been difficult to control so far.

Prasad directed his team to take stern steps against erring telemarketers and individuals involved in harassment of telecom subscribers. In the meeting, it was also pointed out that even unregistered tele-marketers were sending commercial communication to the subscribers.

This is the government’s latest attempt to regulate unwanted calls and messages, something it has failed to enforce along with the regulator for years.

The minister directed telecom ministry officials to conduct a meeting with

mobile operators

and telemarketers to ensure their compliance with the laiddown rules and procedures. For effective handling of Unsolicited Commercial Communication (UCC) and also tackle financial frauds, it was decided to develop a web/mobile application and SMS-based system for redressal mechanism.

“This will enable telecom subscribers to lodge their complaints related to matters in volving UCC,” the government said. Apart from the DIU, the government will also establish a Telecom Analytics for Fraud Management and Consumer Protection (TAFCOP) system in mobile service areas to tackle the problem.

As the country worked from home and businesses and offices conducted operations out of office, the cases of phishing attacks have been on the rise. Apart from pesky calls, there have been growing instances of mobile/internet subscribers being duped in the name of job portals, online shopping, digital banking, and coronavirus updates. The government recently informed the

Parliament

that over 2.9 lakh cyber security incidents related to digital banking were reported in 2020.

The cases grew from nearly 1.6 lakh incidents in 2018, to about 2.5 lakh in 2019, and thereafter to 2.9 lakh last year.