Do Not Answer Calls from Unfamiliar International Numbers: DoT to Citizens

The Indian government's Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has cautioned the citizens of India against calls from international numbers that claim to be coming from a department of the government of India. DoT recently said that fraudsters are using international numbers for defrauding mobile users in India by impersonating government authorities.

According to DoT, fraudsters are calling mobile users in the country from international numbers that do not start with +91 but start with numbers such as +8, +85, and +65 to name a few. They claim to be coming from Indian Authorities or organisations such as TRAI, Police, and the Income Tax department and they threaten mobile users of disconnecting their mobile numbers, digital arrests, having drugs or narcotics in a courier, and arrest in a sex racket to name a few.

In response to these growing cyber threats, DoT has formed a dedicated task force comprising of officials from 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," DoT wrote in a release.

Airtel has already started displaying 'International Call' for calls originating from outside the country. This should help subscribers in identifying if a call is a scam call.

In addition to this, the Department of Telecom had also launched the 'International Incoming Spoofed Calls Prevention System’ back in October this year to identify calls that appear to be originating from within India but are made by the cyber-criminals from abroad. According to the data shared by the DoT, this system identified 1.35 crore incoming international calls with tempered Indian phone numbers in just 24 hours of its operation. And in most recent report, the organisation said that the spoofed calls identified and blocked with Indian numbers have dipped to about 6 lakhs.

DoT is now asking the mobile users to remain vigilant about such fraudulent calls and report them at government's Sanchar Saathi portal.