Industry Odisha Bureau, Oct 06: The Department of Telecommunications’ (DoT) Sanchar Saathi portal has crossed 30 crore visits since its launch in May 2023. Notably, citizens have been increasingly using the platform to report suspected telecom fraud and protect against misuse of mobile connections.
The portal provides services to report suspicious calls, SMS and WhatsApp messages, check mobile connections registered in a user’s name and block lost or stolen handsets.
Its Chakshu service has received 12.80 lakh reports of suspected fraudulent communications. This led to action in 59.82 lakh cases including the disconnection of more than 50 lakh mobile connections.
The portal has also received over 4 crore requests from citizens to check or report mobile connections issued in their names. These services help users identify connections they did not obtain or no longer require.
In the case of lost and stolen handsets, more than 60.96 lakh devices have been blocked. Meanwhile, 37.85 lakh devices have been traced and over 14 lakh recovered. Traceability information from such devices can also be shared with the police.
DoT said citizen generated information feeds into the wider Financial fraud Risk Indicator (FRI). This then identifies mobile numbers potentially linked to financial fraud. Through the Digital Intelligence Platform, these risk signals are shared with banks, payment service providers, telecom operators and law enforcement agencies.
The department said FRI has helped prevent suspected cyber fraud losses of more than Rs 5,000 crore. The Sanchar Saathi mobile app is available in English, Hindi and 21 regional languages, and has crossed 2.8 crore downloads.
