As many as 65 illegal telecom setups unearthed during FY24: Govt

As many as 65 illegal telecom setups, that allowed international calls with spoofed Indian numbers, were busted during FY2023-24, Parliament was informed on Wednesday.

The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has directed the International Long Distance Operators (ILDOs) to drop incoming calls with no Calling Line Identification (CLI), or improper CLI or having certain prefixes.

Moreover, DoT is blocking the apps allowing the origination of spoofed calls. Such apps are also blocked at Google Play Store and iOS App Store, Minister of State for Communications, Devusinh Chauhan said in a written reply in Lok Sabha.

DoT in coordination with Law Enforcement Agencies and Telecom Service Providers (TSPs) is unearthing illegal telecom setups that allow international calls with spoofed Indian numbers.

Such illegal setups are used to bypass the ILDOs for anti-national activities, cyber-crimes and financial frauds, Chauhan said.

"So far, 65 such illegal setups during FY 2023-24, 62 in FY 2022-23 and 35 in FY 2021-2022 have been unearthed.

"Further, to prevent the incoming international calls with spoofed Indian landline numbers, DoT has directed the ILDO to drop international incoming calls with no CLI, improper CLI or having CLI prefixes such as +11, 011 & 11, +911 to +915," he informed.

DoT has launched citizen-centric Sanchar Saathi portal, which facilitates the citizens to report international calls received with Indian CLI, and to check mobile connections taken in their name and report the mobile connections which are not taken by them.

"Telecom Service Providers are disconnecting such reported mobile connections after necessary subscriber reverification. Around 13.08 lakh such mobile connections have been disconnected," the minister said.