Sanchar Saathi: DoT disconnects 3.9 mn mobile connections over cyber fraud

India’s efforts to curb cyber-enabled fraud are increasingly being driven by citizens themselves, according to fresh data shared by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) in Parliament. Responding to a question in the Rajya Sabha, Minister of State for Communications and Rural Development Pemmasani Chandra Sekhar said the DoT’s Sanchar Saathi initiative has enabled members of the public to report suspected fraudulent communications through its Chakshu facility, available via a web portal and mobile application.

 

The volume of reports has grown sharply since the platform’s launch. In 2024, citizens reported more than 2.08 lakh suspected fraud communications. This rose to over half a million in 2025, reflecting wider adoption of the service.

 

Data shared by the ministry show that impersonation scams, including those posing as police, central agencies or regulators, account for a significant share of complaints. Other frequently reported categories include fake customer-care numbers, KYC and payment-related fraud, online job and lottery offers, malicious links, and sextortion attempts.

Source: DoT

Category	2024	2025	2026
Fake Customer Care Helpline	30969	60985	4519
IVR / Robo Calls	16037	14925	1376
Impersonation as DoT / TRAI	217	15595	809
Impersonation as Police, CBI, Customs, Aadhaar, RBI etc	44865	54639	6675
Impersonation as a relative / friend	258	19564	1201
Investment, Stock Market and Trading	165	29140	2112
KYC and Payment related to Bank / Electricity / Gas / Insurance etc	21281	106483	8325
Malicious link / website	8304	19418	2933
Online job / lottery /gifts/loan offers	23634	58560	4591
Sextortion	10901	21189	1774
Any Other Suspected Fraud	51593	119164	8540
Total	208224	519662	42855

The government emphasised that Chakshu is intended for reporting suspected fraud attempts where no financial loss has yet occurred. Cases involving actual losses are handled separately by the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre under the Ministry of Home Affairs.

Rather than acting on individual complaints, DoT analyses the aggregated, crowdsourced data to identify misuse of telecom resources. Based on 7.7 lakh citizen inputs, authorities have disconnected 39.43 lakh mobile connections, blacklisted 2.27 lakh mobile handsets and barred 1.31 lakh SMS templates, after providing opportunities for re-verification where required.

 

To strengthen coordination across sectors, DoT has also established the Digital Intelligence Platform (DIP), a secure system for sharing information on suspect numbers and fraud risk indicators. More than 1,200 entities, including central agencies, state police forces, banks, payment service providers, telecom operators and messaging platforms, have been onboarded.

 

Officials said information shared through the platform has helped prevent more than Rs 1,000 crore in fraud through declined transactions and customer alerts.

 

Messaging platform WhatsApp has disengaged around 28 lakh accounts linked to numbers flagged through the system.

The ministry said dashboards detailing enforcement action are publicly available on the Sanchar Saathi portal, and emphasised that citizen participation remains central to the government’s strategy to counter cyber fraud and financial scams.