New nodal company to deal with fraud, pesky SMSes & calls

The central authorities will arrange a digital intelligence unit (DIU) as a nodal company to cope with complaints of unsolicited business communication (UCC) and circumstances of monetary fraud, particularly within the digital funds area, an official launch from the Ministry of Telecommunications mentioned.
At a excessive degree assembly presided by Telecom Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, the Ministry determined that other than the DIU on the nodal degree, a Telecom Analytics for Fraud Management and Consumer Protection (TAFCOP) may even be arrange in any respect the 22 license service space degree.
“The main function of DIU will be to coordinate with various LEAs (law enforcement agencies), financial institutions and telecom service providers in investigating any fraudulent activity involving telecom resources,” the Ministry mentioned in its launch.
The subject of UCC has been a serious space of concern for the Telecom Ministry in addition to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai). Trai has infrequently fined telecom operators for not following its directives on stopping UCC.
In November final 12 months, the telecom sector regulator informed the Delhi High Court that it had imposed fines of as much as Rs 30 crore on telecom firms corresponding to state-run Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited, and personal telecom firms corresponding to Vodafone Idea and Reliance Jio Infocomm for not placing sufficient measures to manage UCC, which occurred over their networks between April and June 2020.
In the excessive degree assembly on Monday, Prasad requested senior Ministry officers to fulfill all telecom service suppliers and ask them to make sure strict compliance of the directives points with respect to UCC.

“ In case of any violation, it was proposed to impose financial penalty against the tele-marketers including disconnection of resources in case of repetitive violations,” the Ministry mentioned, including that an internet and cellular utility in addition to a SMS-based system shall be developed for efficient redressal of complaints.
Apart from UCC, the rise in fraudulent digital transactions was additionally mentioned within the assembly, officers mentioned. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had, in its annual report for 2018-19, mentioned frauds associated to misuse of credit score and debit playing cards, cloning of identities, spam amounted to Rs 220 crore within the 12 months, and was slated to rise except correct mitigation measures had been taken.
Special methods, together with blocking of telecom operations in areas, corresponding to Jamtara and Mewat, that are notorious for working digital fraud transaction centres, shall even be taken, the Ministry mentioned.
In August final 12 months, Haryana’s Faridabad police arrested 5 folks from Jamtara for being concerned in a racket involving e-SIM frauds. Those arrested had then informed the police that by swapping e-SIM of Apple’s iPhones, funds had been transferred into wallets supplied by PhonePe, OlaMoney, Paytm Payments Bank and Airtel Payments Bank, which had been then once more routed into different financial institution accounts all around the nation earlier than being taken out.