DoT Issues New Number Series For Marketing And Service Calls To Curb Cyber Frauds

The Department of Telecommunications has allocated a separate 10-digit number series starting with 160 for marketing and service calls. According to a release issued by the department on Tuesday, this 10-digit number series has been designed in such a way that telecom customers will be able to know about the entities calling, as well as the telephone operator and the location of the call. According to the official statement, “It has been decided to allocate a separate number series 160 exclusively for service and transactional phone calls under the Telecom Commercial Communication Customer Preference Regulation (TCCCPR), 2018.”

The move is aimed at helping customers differentiate between calls made by government bodies and regulated entities and calls made by fraudsters impersonating government officials. The new number series will be issued in the format 1600ABCXXX for the government and regulators. The ‘AB’ will represent the code of the telecom circle, with 11 for Delhi and 22 for Mumbai. The digit ‘C’ will represent the code of the telecom service provider while ‘XXX’ will be a number between 000-999.

Similarly, for financial institutions regulated by RBI, Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) and Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (IRDA), the 10-digit number will be issued in the format 1601ABCXXX. The telecom service provider will do proper verification of each entity before allocating a number in the 160 series. Apart from this, it will have to take an affidavit from the interested entity that it will use the number allotted under this series only for service and transaction calls.

Additionally, the Department of Telecommunications, in collaboration with the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), has taken decisive action to protect citizens from potential SMS fraud through the Sanchar Saathi initiative. Over the past three months, over 10,000 fraudulent messages were sent using eight specific headers. As a result, the Principal Entities responsible for these headers have been blacklisted. This action includes blacklisting all 73 SMS headers and 1,522 content templates linked to these entities. Consequently, these entities, along with their headers and templates, are now prohibited from sending SMS through any telecom operator.