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Nodal agency to tackle fraud, pesky SMSes & calls

Posted on February 16, 2021 by admin1  457

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The Ministry of Communication and Information Technology will set up an intelligence unit and a consumer protection system to tackle the menace of pesky calls and financial frauds perpetrated using telecom resources.

Rationale Behind the Step

  • The issue of UCC has been a major area of concern for the Telecom Ministry as well as the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai).
  • Recently, there have been several complaints regarding financial frauds done through mobile phones by sending pesky messages promising loans etc.
  •  The TRAI already has regulations in place to check pesky calls.
    •  However, several unregistered telemarketers still make calls to people which often also leads to fraudulent incidents.
  • The cases, as per the information sourced from the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-In), grew from nearly 1.6 lakh incidents in 2018 to about 2.5 lakh in 2019, and thereafter to 2.9 lakh last year.
  • According to the annual report of  The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) for 2018-19 frauds related to misuse of credit and debit cards, cloning of identities, spam amounted to Rs 220 crore in the year and expected to rise unless proper mitigation measures were taken.
  • The Ministry decided to set up a Digital Intelligence Unit (DIU) and a Telecom Analytics for Fraud Management and Consumer Protection (TAFCOP).

 

Digital Intelligence Unit (DIU)

  • It will be a nodal agency to deal with complaints of unsolicited commercial communication (UCC) and cases of financial fraud, especially in the digital payments space.
  • The main function of DIU will be to coordinate with various LEAs (law enforcement agencies), financial institutions and telecom service providers in investigating any fraudulent activity involving telecom resources.

 

Unsolicited Commercial Communication (UCC)

  • UCC means any Commercial Communication which a subscriber opts not to receive.
  • It does not include-
    • any transactional message or any message transmitted on the directions of the Central Government or State Government or agencies authorized by it.

 

Telecom Analytics for Fraud Management and Consumer Protection (TAFCOP)

  • TAFCOP will be set up at all the 22 license service area levels.
  • It will strengthen the trust of people in the digital ecosystem and will make financial digital transactions primarily through mobile.
  • It will be more secure and reliable, which will result in the promotion of Digital India.
  • In case of any violation, imposing a financial penalty on telemarketers and disconnecting resources in case of repetitive violations have also been proposed.

Source: IE

 
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