Government cracks down on fraudulent phone calls, prohibits bulk SIM card connections

These measures were taken after the government launched the Sanchar Sarthi portal in May this year to combat telecom fraud cases.

To curb fraudulent phone calls, the government has decided to prohibit the issuance of bulk SIM card connections and make it mandatory for SIM card dealers to undergo verification.

"There's a thing called a SIM box through which a lot of automated calls can be done. Today, fraudsters take 5 SIMs, use them and deactivate before taking another batch of SIMs and make fraudulent calls. After detailed study, we have decided that the bulk connection system will be discontinued and a system for proper business connections will be brought into place," said telecom minister Ashwini Vaishnaw.

"Individual KYCs have to be done for those business connections. For example, if 4,000 SIMs are taken by a company, each employee who gets a SIM has to be KYCed," he added.

Vaishnaw also said that SIM dealers don't do as many checks as required by law before giving a connection.

"By some means or other, SIM dealers short circuit the verification process and sell SIMs. From now, indisputable verification of point of sale dealers and their registration will be made mandatory," he said.

"This is being done so that those who sell SIMs fraudulently can be made accountable. This has been done after going to field discussions with the police and telecom industry. It might loom like a small reform but you will see a significant change because of this," he added.

The minister also said that the government has blocked 66,000 fraudulent WhatsApp accounts, blacklisted 67,000 SIM card dealers, registered 300 FIRs against fraudsters, blocked 8 lakh payment wallet accounts for fraudulent transactions, deactivated 52 lakh phone connections obtained by fraudulent means, and blocked 17,000 mobile handsets that were either lost or stolen. These measures were taken after the government launched the Sanchar Sarthi portal in May this year to combat telecom fraud cases.