Govt directs telcos to block incoming international spoofed calls

New Delhi: The Government has issued a directive to telecom operators to block all incoming international spoofed calls that display Indian mobile numbers, according to an official statement released on Sunday.

The Department of Telecom (DoT) has reported that fraudsters are making international spoofed calls, displaying Indian mobile numbers to deceive Indian citizens and commit cyber-crimes and financial frauds.

These spoofed calls, which appear to originate within India, are actually made by cyber-criminals from abroad by manipulating the calling line identity (CLI). Such calls have been misused in numerous cases, including fake digital arrests, FedEx scams, narcotics in courier scams, impersonation of government and police officials, and false notifications about mobile number disconnections by DoT or TRAI officials.

"DoT and Telecom Service Providers (TSPs) have devised a system to identify and block such international spoofed calls from reaching any Indian telecom subscriber. Directions have now been issued to the TSPs to block these incoming international spoofed calls," the statement explained.

Previously, TSPs were already blocking incoming international spoofed calls using Indian landline numbers, following DoT's directives.

"Despite our best efforts, some fraudsters may still succeed through other means. To combat this, we urge everyone to report suspected fraud communications using the Chakshu facility on Sanchar Saathi," the statement added.

In related news, the DoT recently issued directives for telecom operators to re-verify 6.8 lakh mobile numbers within 60 days, which are suspected to have been obtained using invalid, non-existent, or fake documents. This action follows advanced AI-driven analysis that flagged these connections as potentially fraudulent.