Scammers target WhatsApp users with phishing calls from foreign shores

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has cracked down severely on intrusive calls and messages over the past few months

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WhatsApp users have experienced a deluge of missed voice and video calls over the past week from numerous different country codes, a report by the Economic Times (ET) said.

This is the latest in phishing attempts by scammers that have the telecom sector scrambling to combat the growing threat, it added.

The issue is that while telcos and the regulator have been working to develop artificial intelligence (AI)-based solutions to stop spam calls and messages over the regular terrestrial network, scammers have moved to over-the-top (OTT) communication platforms like WhatsApp.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) has cracked down severely on intrusive calls and messages over the past few months. Private telcos have been looking into additional options to prevent unsolicited commercial communication (UCC).

So far, Vodafone Idea has shown Trai how its anti-phishing programme, created by Tanla Platforms, works. However, it can only alert platforms like WhatsApp if there is a link to it in the message and filter SMS traffic. It cannot monitor WhatsApp traffic because WhatsApp uses a telecom operator's network.

According to company executives, Bharti Airtel and Reliance Jio are yet to present their solution to the regulator but even in their case, blocking and filtering of OTT messages and calls won't be possible.

"Filtering out OTT traffic will be challenging as these apps are unregulated and the platforms themselves must take action to stop phishing and spam," said a telecom firm executive.

Another telecom executive added that any anti-phishing solution which cannot work on OTT will be less effective as even the traditional commercial SMS traffic is increasingly moving to IP or internet protocol messaging.

For instance, more companies are switching to WhatsApp's enterprise platform due to cost savings.

"We have been pleading with the government and Trai to regulate OTT apps so that such issues can be resolved," said another telco executive.

Meanwhile, when questioned about the increase in spam and phishing messages, a WhatsApp representative said that the company takes immediate action to remove illegal activity as quickly as possible.