Cyber-crime: Centre suggests new way to handle international spoofed calls displaying Indian numbers

Alerting Indian citizens, the government on Sunday said these calls appear to be originating within India but are being made by cyber-criminals from abroad by manipulating the calling line identity (CLI).

"Such international spoofed 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 Indian government said in a statement.

The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) and Telecom Service Providers (TSPs) have devised a system to identify and block such incoming international spoofed calls from reaching any Indian telecom subscriber.

"Now directions have been issued to the TSPs for blocking of such incoming international spoofed calls," the statement said.

"The incoming international spoofed calls with Indian landline numbers are being already blocked by the TSPs as per the directions issued by DoT," the statement said.

The government said DoT has already taken several initiatives including citizen-centric Sanchar Saathi portal (https://sancharsaathi.gov.in/) 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 Chakshu facility on Sanchar Saathi," read the statement.

What is Chakshu facility?

Chakshu’ facilitates citizens to report suspected fraud communication received over call, SMS or WhatsApp with the intention of defrauding like KYC expiry or update of bank account / payment wallet / SIM / gas connection / electricity connection, sextortion, impersonation as government official / relative for sending money, disconnection of all mobile numbers by Department of Telecommunications etc.

In case, a citizen is already a victim of cyber-crime or financial fraud, it is advised to report at cyber-crime helpline number 1930 or website https://www.cybercrime.gov.in of Government of India.

Facility already available Sanchar Saathi portal (https://sancharsaathi.gov.in)

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,
To report the stolen / lost mobile handset for blocking and tracing,

To check the genuineness of mobile handset while buying a new/old device,

To report the incoming international calls received with Indian telephone number as calling line identification,

To check the details of licensed wireline Internet Service Providers.