Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) has just issued a notice alerting its users regarding the SMS frauds that are happening in the country. The state-run telco has said that these fraudsters are using the KYC details of the customers to withdraw money from their bank account. The telco said that fraudsters are approaching the customers through SMS and telling them that their BSNL SIM will be deactivated if they didn’t complete the KYC procedure. The headers that most of these fake SMS contain are - ‘CP-SMSFST, AD-VIRINF, CP-BLMKND, and BP-ITLINN’. BSNL has said that these messages are not being sent by the telco and has asked the customers not to entertain them.
Government and Telcos Have Implemented a New SMS Template to Tackle the Issue
The new SMS template system that will run with the help of blockchain technology has gone live since yesterday. Very important SMSes such as OTPs and more weren’t being delivered to the customers yesterday because of the same.
The telcos gave enough time to the businesses in India to adopt the new SMS template, but because a majority of big institutions didn’t pay a lot of importance to it. However, according to the Delhi High Court order, the new SMS verification system went live yesterday. Now, any message that originates from a verified company/business needs to follow the header and footer template as suggested by the government.
This system will reduce the percentage of SMS frauds since any SMS that is not verified by the telcos will be blocked and not delivered to the customers. The BSNL SMS fraud is also expected to reduce with the new SMS verification system. But being aware of such frauds is essential. Adding to this, not giving important information such as OTPs and other personal information is also important.
You can also report such SMSes to the telcos and the concerned authorities.
