New Delhi, February 5: In a significant move to curb cybercrime and financial fraud, the government has disconnected 3.9 million mobile connections across the country. Additionally, 227,000 mobile handsets and 131,000 SMS templates have been blacklisted.
Minister of State for Communications and Information TECHNOLOGY, Dr. P. Chandrasekhar, provided this information in a written response to the Rajya Sabha on Thursday. He explained that the Department of Telecommunications has established a digital intelligence platform (DIP) to prevent the misuse of telecommunications resources, thereby tackling cybercrime and financial fraud.
The minister highlighted that the ‘Communication Partner’ initiative by the Department of Telecommunications is accessible to the public through a web portal and mobile app. This initiative allows citizens to report suspicious calls, messages, or other fraudulent communications via the ‘Chakshu’ feature.
The aim of the Communication Partner initiative is to encourage reporting of cases where fraud attempts have occurred but no actual loss has been incurred. Cases resulting in genuine financial loss are managed by the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C), which operates under the Ministry of Home Affairs.
Dr. Chandrasekhar noted that typically, consumers are given an opportunity for re-verification before any action is taken on a mobile connection. The dashboard of the Communication Partner portal provides complete details of actions taken.
He stated, “Based on 770,000 inputs received from citizens, 3.9 million mobile connections have been disconnected, 227,000 mobile handsets blacklisted, and 131,000 SMS templates blacklisted.”
According to the minister, stakeholders take necessary actions on connected accounts and profiles based on the information shared through the DIP.
He also mentioned that due to transaction stoppages and timely alerts via the Fraud Risk Indicator (FRI), fraud amounting to over ₹1,000 crore has been prevented so far.
Furthermore, WhatsApp has deactivated 2.8 million profiles and accounts linked to shared mobile numbers.