Lok Sabha Question No. 1715 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2023-12-13
Subject: Fraud in the name of TRAI
Ministry: COMMUNICATIONS
Asked by: Chandra Sekhar Sahu, Pritam Gopinath Munde

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATIONS DEPARTMENT OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 1715 TO BE ANSWERED ON 13 TH  DECEMBER, 2023

## FRAUD IN THE NAME OF TRAI

## 1715.   SHRI CHANDRA SEKHAR SAHU:

## DR. PRITAM GOPINATHRAO MUNDE:

Will the Minister of COMMUNICATIONS be pleased to state:

- (a) whether cases of fraud in the name of Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) have increased in the country in the recent past;
- (b) if so, the number of such cases came to the notice TRAI from various States including Odisha and Maharashtra;
- (c) whether TRAI has been able to find out the modus operandi of companies/agencies/individuals involved in such frauds in the country;
- (d) if so, the details in this regard; and
- (e) the details of the steps taken by the Government to check and stop various such activities in the country including Maharashtra?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF STATE FOR COMMUNICATIONS (SHRI DEVUSINH CHAUHAN)

(a)  to (d) Government is committed to safety & security of telecom users. Government has launched Sanchar Saathi portal (https://sancharsaathi.gov.in) which, inter-alia, empowers citizens:

- (i) to  know  the  mobile  connections  issued  in  their  name  and  report  the  mobile connections for disconnection which are either not required or not taken by them,
- (ii) to report the stolen / lost mobile handset for blocking and tracing,
- (iii) to check the genuineness of mobile handset while buying a new/old device,
- (iv) to report the incoming international calls received with Indian telephone number as calling line identification,

As on date, the outcome of Sanchar Saathi portal is as under:

|   1 | Number of mobile connections disconnected taken on fake/forged documents                             | 55.52 lakh   |
|-----|------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|--------------|
|   2 | Number of requests resolved for 'Know Your Mobile Connections'                                       | 27 lakh      |
|   3 | Number of suspected mobile connections reported by citizens and disconnected failing re-verification | 13.42 lakh   |
|   4 | Mobile handsets traced for 'Block Your Lost/Stolen Mobile'                                           | 5.30 lakh    |
|   5 | Mobile handsets recovered by State Police and returned to citizens                                   | 59,585       |
|   6 | Point of Sales (PoS) blacklisted                                                                     | 70,313       |
|   7 | Number of FIRs registered                                                                            | 365          |
|   8 | Number of PoS involved in FIRs                                                                       | 1,957        |
|   9 | Mobile handsets blocked for involvement in cyber-crime /financial frauds                             | 1.32 lakh    |

|   10 | Number of mobile connections disconnected reported by law enforcement agencies on National Cyber Crime reporting portal reportedly involved in cyber-crime / financial frauds.   | 2.78 lakh   |
|------|----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|-------------|
|   11 | Accounts disengaged by WhatsApp which were linked to disconnected mobile connections taken on fake/forged documents                                                              | 2.21 lakh   |
|   12 | Number of accounts frozen by Banks & Payment wallets which were linked with disconnected mobile connections taken on fake/forged documents                                       | 9.83 lakh   |

Cases  of  impersonation  or  falsely  claiming  as  TRAI  officers  to  dupe  citizens  have  been reported.  TRAI has mandated Telecom Service Providers to take appropriate actions against the mobile numbers involved in sending unsolicited communications in terms of Telecom Commercial Communication Customer Preference Regulation (TCCCPR), 2018.

(e) The steps taken by the Government to check and stop such activities in the country including Odisha and Maharashtra are as below:-

- TRAI issues various press releases & public information.
- Awareness Campaigns.
- The affected persons may take up the matter with the concerned Service Providers directly on their respective Customer Service Centre numbers or on National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal https://cybercrime.gov.in or call Cyber Crime Helpline Number 1930.
- To reach out to consumers all over the country, TRAI conducts Consumer Outreach Programs (COPs),  Customer  Awareness  Programs  (CAPs)  through  Customer  Advocacy  Groups (CAGs) and Customer Education Workshops (CEWs) through Service Providers across the country. In such programs TRAI, its nominated CAGs and Service Providers inter-alia creates awareness about the measures taken by TRAI and Service Providers to protect the consumers from unwanted/unsolicited commercial communications along with other measures taken by TRAI to protect the interest of consumers on the matters of Tariff, Value Added Service, Data services, Mobile Number Portability etc.
- TRAI  imparts  training  in  Capacity  Building  Workshops  for  consumer  organizations registered  with  TRAI  on  various  measures  related  to  consumer  protection  including protection from Unsolicited Communications.  These  consumer  organizations further decimate awareness to consumers.
- To create awareness about fraudulent SMSs in the name of upgrading 5G SIM, TRAI issued instructions to all TSPs to send SMSs in English, Hindi/ Regional languages.
- A Special drive has been taken by TRAI for creating awareness among consumers under the theme "Digital Frauds through Spams: Safety Lies in Awareness" wherein topic related to Digital Frauds using Telecom Resources and measures to protect them through awareness are explained in detail by the Cyber Experts.

Government is taking proactive steps to prevent the different modalities used for cyber-frauds including the misuse of Headers and message templates of Principle Entities (PEs). DoT conducted an AI/ML (Artificial  Intelligence/Machine Learning) based analysis of the entities sending SMS through Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) platforms with their headers and content templates and  about  20,000  PEs,  30,000  SMS  headers  and  1.95  lakh  SMS  Content  templates  have  been removed.

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