TRAI Cautions Against Fraud Calls That 'Threaten' Disconnection Of Mobile Number

Entities engaging in such practices also deceive customers by falsely asserting that their Aadhaar numbers were utilised to acquire SIM cards and are involved in illicit activities.

India's a telecom regulator Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has issued a warning where it emphasised that calls falsely claiming to be from the regulatory body, threatening disconnection, are illegal. TRAI also clarified that it neither blocks nor disconnects any mobile number and advised considering any call or message purporting to be from TRAI as potentially fraudulent, says a report by news agency PTI.

Entities such as firms, agencies and individuals engaging in such practices also deceive customers by falsely asserting that their Aadhaar numbers were utilised to acquire SIM cards and are involved in illicit activities. They are further trying to trick the customers public to come on Skype video call to avoid disconnection of mobile numbers, TRAI has cautioned.

"It has been brought to the notice of TRAI that some companies/ agencies/ individuals are fraudulently asking the public/ customers that they are calling from TRAI and mobile numbers of the public/ customers will be disconnected as the numbers are being used for sending unsolicited messages," the teleom regulator said in a statement.

The regulatory body has also made it clear that it has not authorised any agency to contact customers for such activities and all such calls are illegal and are to be dealt as per law.

"The public at large are hereby informed that TRAI does not block/ disconnect any mobile number of any individual telecom customers. TRAI never sends any message or make any call for disconnection of mobile numbers," the release noted.

"Affected persons may take up the matter with the service providers concerned directly on their respective customer service centre numbers or on National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal cybercrime.gov.in or call Cyber Crime Helpline Number 1930," TRAI further said.

Earlier this year, the telecom regulator slapped a penalty of Rs 34.99 crore on network service providers for failing to curb pesky calls and SMS on their network. Union Telecom Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw, in a written reply to the Rajya Sabha said, as per the reports, telcos have disconnected 15,382 and 32,032 connections during the calendar year- 2021 and 2022, respectively, for violating Telecom Commercial Communication Customers Preference Regulation (TCCCPR), 2018.