Government asks telecom providers to block incoming international spoofed calls

In a significant move, the government on Sunday issued directions to Telecom Service Providers (TSPs) for blocking incoming international spoofed calls.

It noted that together with the Department of Telecommunications (DoT), the TSPs have devised a system to help identify and block incoming international spoofed calls from reaching any Indian telecom subscriber. In a statement, the Ministry of Communications informed that "fraudsters are making international spoofed calls displaying Indian mobile numbers to Indian citizens and committing cyber-crime and financial frauds".

"These calls appear to be originating within India but being made by the cyber-criminals from abroad by manipulating the calling line identity (CLI)," it added. The ministry said that these calls "have been misused in recent cases of fake digital arrests, FedEx scams, drugs/narcotics in courier, impersonation as Govt and police officials, disconnections of mobile numbers by DoT/TRAI officials, etc".

The DoT had previously asked the TSPs to block incoming international spoofed calls with Indian landline numbers."Now directions have been issued to the TSPs for blocking of such incoming international spoofed calls," the ministry said.To maintain the safety and security of the users, DoT has taken many initiatives including citizen-centric Sanchar Saathi portal to protect telecom users. "Despite best efforts, there may still be some fraudsters who succeed through other means.

For such calls, you can help everybody by reporting such suspected fraud communications at the Chakshu facility on Sanchar Saathi," the ministry said.