Six million mobile connections fraudulent, says DoT

economictimes.indiatimes.com:

Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has screened more than 11.4 million active mobile phone connections, of which 6 million have been found to be fraudulent. While the department has already disconnected 5 million such connections, work is going on to block the remaining connections, as the government doubles down on checking cybercrimes and catching criminals.

As per DoT officials, to break the network of cybercriminals, a multi-pronged strategy is being utilised by various government and autonomous departments. For instance, the Reserve Bank of India, Ministry of Home Affairs, banks and DoT work in tandem to break the network of cybercriminals and block sources of their proceeds.

«Over 700,000 accounts linked with fraudulent numbers including those of banks, financial institutions like Paytm, PhonePe have been frozen. These accounts were involved in taking proceeds from various cybercrimes,» an official told ET.

Another official said DoT's initiative to trace lost or stolen mobile phones is getting good results as police of various states have now become much more active post a letter from the previous telecom secretary, K Rajaraman. The telecom department had also written to the chief secretaries and police chiefs of all states and union territories some time back, highlighting the slow pace on the registration of FIRs over lost or stolen mobile phones and the recovery of the devices.