Lok Sabha Question No. 1692 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2025-07-30
Subject: Fraudulent Mobile Connections
Ministry: COMMUNICATION
Asked by: Shri Magunta Sreenivasulu Reddy, Shri G M Harish Balayogi

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATIONS DEPARTMENT OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 1692 ANSWERED ON 30 TH  JULY, 2025

## FRAUDULENT MOBILE CONNECTIONS

## 1692.   SHRI MAGUNTA SREENIVASULU REDDY: SHRI G M HARISH BALAYOGI:

Will the Minister of COMMUNICATION be pleased to state:

- (a) the number of fraudulent mobile connections disconnected and WhatsApp accounts frozen by the Digital Intelligence Unit (DIU), State/UT-wise;
- (b) whether the DIU coordinates with the law enforcement agencies at the State/UT level;
- (c) if so, the details of the States/UTs with established nodal integration units and the nature of support provided by the DIU;
- (d) whether DIU has identified cases of cross-border telecom fraud;
- (e) if so, the details of the cooperation mechanism with foreign countries/regulators/agencies to address such threats;
- (f) the  details  of  the  technological  and  human  resource  capacity  of  the  DIU  including  the availability of analytics tools, data infrastructure and the number of personnel deployed;
- (g) the  steps  taken/being  taken  by  the  Government  to  strengthen  the  DIU  in  cybersecurity infrastructure, advanced analytics and enhanced integration with financial institutions; and
- (h) whether the Government has implemented/plans to implement artificial intelligence-based threat detection systems and real-time data-sharing mechanisms, if so, the details thereof?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF STATE FOR COMMUNICATIONS AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT (DR. PEMMASANI CHANDRA SEKHAR)

- (a) Department of Telecommunications (DoT) through its ASTR tool detects mobile connections that  were  acquired  through  forged  documents  and  has  disconnected  more  than  82  lakhs  such connections after they failed reverification. Further, WhatsApp accounts associated with the certain mobile numbers are sent to Meta for disengagement.
- (b) & (c) DoT has developed an online secure Digital Intelligence Platform (DIP) for sharing of information related to misuse of telecom resources among the stakeholders. State/ UT Police are on-boarded on the DIP.

(d) & (e) DoT and Telecom Service Providers (TSPs) have devised a system called Centralised International Outroamer Register (CIOR) to identify and block incoming international spoofed calls displaying Indian mobile numbers.

(f) to (h) Digital Intelligence Unit (DIU) of DoT has evolved the ecosystem for curbing misuse of  telecom  resources  through  enhanced  capacity  building  of  human  resource  skillset  and  by development of AI & big data analytics tools, inter-alia, including ASTR, CIOR and DIP. Further, Sanchar Saathi, a citizen centric initiative has been launched by DoT which is accessible through web portal & mobile App and facilitates citizens to report suspected fraud communications, to know mobile connections in their name, to report lost/ stolen mobile handsets etc.

In addition, Financial Fraud Risk Indicator (FRI) has been developed which is a risk-based metric that classifies a mobile number to have been associated with Medium, High, or Very High risk  of  financial  fraud.  FRI  empowers  stakeholders-especially  banks,  Non-Banking  Financial Companies  (NBFC),  and  Unified  Payments  Interface  (UPI)  service  providers  to  prioritize enforcement and take additional customer protection measures in case a mobile number has high risk.

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