As part of the government’s initiative to check digital fraud, a Digital Intelligence Platform has been developed, bringing together 620 institutions including 570 banks, 36 state police forces, investigative agencies, and telecom service providers, to jointly tackle fraud in real-time. The platform enables integrated action against scammers and cyber criminals who misuse telecom infrastructure to deceive citizens.
To further involve the public in this mission, the Government launched the Sanchar Saathi portal on May 16, 2023, which has since registered over 15.5 crore hits, indicating strong public awareness and participation. Building on this success, the Sanchar Saathi mobile app was launched on January 17, 2025, for both Android and iOS, and has received over 44 lakh downloads.
Through the combined inputs of these platforms, DoT successfully blocked 5.5 lakh handsets besides deactivated 20,000 bulk SMS senders. Also around 24 lakh WhatsApp accounts involved in suspicious activities were also disengaged.
A key feature introduced is the “Know Your Mobile Connections” service, which allows users to check all numbers issued under their name and report any unauthorized connections. This has resulted in the disconnection of 1.36 crore such numbers.
The Government has also deployed artificial intelligence tools, notably the ASTR system, to automatically detect and eliminate fake mobile numbers—leading to the disconnection of an additional 82 lakh such connections.
To address international spoof calls, wherein foreign numbers appeared as Indian calls, the DoT introduced a centralized software solution under the International Incoming Spoof Calls Prevention recently. On the very first day, 1.35 crore such spoof calls were blocked, and ongoing efforts have brought down such incidents by 97 percent. Today, only about three lakh spoof calls are being detected daily, compared to the earlier massive volumes. Telecom operators have also been mandated to display “International Call” alerts on all such incoming numbers for greater user transparency.
Further, the Fraud Risk Indicator (FRI) system was introduced to assess user risk levels—Very High, High, or Medium—based on banking and transaction behaviour. This risk data is shared with banks in real time, helping them prevent suspicious transactions. Over 3.7 lakh individuals have been flagged under these categories, leading to the prevention of more than 3.04 lakh debit/credit instructions and the freezing of 1.55 lakh bank accounts. Recognizing the system’s effectiveness, the Reserve Bank of India has instructed all banks to integrate FRI into their internal systems.
Additionally, the DoT has taken firm steps against misuse of Indian SIMs operating from Southeast Asian countries. Over 26 lakh such roaming mobile connections have been disconnected, and around 1.3 lakh devices used in such scams have been blocked.
