Several telemarketing entities, notably V-Con Intelligent Security and OneXtel Media, have been suspended by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) for disseminating malicious messages through their services. According to a report by the Economic Times (ET), these two telemarketers alone were responsible for sending a record 55.5 million spam messages since January of this year.
In light of the escalating incidence of SMS fraud within the country, the DoT has taken decisive action to suspend these two telemarketing companies, aiming to mitigate the risks associated with such scams.
The DoT's directive, issued on July 15, identified V-Con Intelligent Security and OneXtel Media as platforms for sending customers malicious and phishing SMSes. Reports submitted to the Sanchar Saathi portal, particularly from the 'Chakshu' facility listed under the 'Services' section, highlighted these malicious activities.
Comprehensive analysis of information provided by citizens enabled the DoT to make significant discoveries and undertake specific interventions.
In its efforts to combat the proliferation of malicious SMS activities, the DoT has issued orders for the suspension and blacklisting of 131 Principal Entities (PEs), as well as approximately 5,000 SMS templates and 700 SMS headers linked to these activities. Despite these measures, new headers emerge, allowing fraudulent SMSes to be sent to citizens and raising ongoing concerns.
Investigations have revealed that Onextel Media Pvt Ltd and V-Con Intelligent Security Pvt Ltd were responsible for a substantial portion of these malicious SMSes, accounting for 5.55 crore out of the 5.66 crore reported incidents. The DoT directive also mandates telecom companies to file police complaints against these telemarketers for circumventing the Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) platform and distributing phishing messages.
The DLT platform is utilized to authenticate registered telemarketers and their messaging components, preventing unregistered entities from sending promotional messages.
The DoT's actions were prompted by numerous complaints from telecom users regarding malicious SMSes. In response, the DoT employed facial recognition technology to block 6.76 lakh SIM cards and 10,296 mobile phones in Gujarat that were linked to cybercrime activities.
Further investigations revealed financial connections between the identified companies and various organized transnational crimes, including fraudulent stock investments, prompting the Gujarat Police to launch inquiries.
Despite the collaborative efforts involving telecom companies and regulatory bodies such as the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), and the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI), significant challenges persist in curtailing spam and scam activities. The continuous evolution of spamming techniques poses a formidable challenge, necessitating ongoing adaptation and enhancement of countermeasures to effectively mitigate such threats.
