Telcos Block Over 20 International Carriers Handing Spoofed Calls

Indian International Telecom Service providers (TSPs), such as Airtel, BSNL, RJIL etc have blocked more than 20 international carriers/aggregators that were handing over spoofed international calls to India, in compliance with the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) instructions. To tackle the menace of international spoofed calls from reaching Indian citizens, DoT has asked TSPs to block traffic from such international carriers, which are repeatedly sending spoofed CLI call traffic to India, the Ministry of Communications said in a statement on Friday, January 24, 2025.

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Also Read: Airtel Implements International Call Display Solution; Other TSPs Assessing Feasibility

Spoofed calls

Fraudsters were earlier using spoofed calls with Indian numbers (+91) to deceive people, but DoT in collaboration with all TSPs, has launched an indigenously developed International Incoming Spoofed Calls Prevention System, which was said to be proven effective, blocking 90 percent of such calls— around 1.35 crore in 24 hours.

Though these calls appear to originate from within India, they are actually made from abroad through manipulation of the Calling Line Identity (CLI), commonly referred to as phone number. “The spoofed calls identified and blocked with Indian numbers have now dipped to about 4 lakhs per day,” the Ministry said.

Label International Calls

To counter scammers who have shifted to using international numbers for spoofing, DoT has mandated TSPs to clearly label all incoming international calls as “International Calls.” This step aims to help citizens recognise that these calls cannot originate from domestic government agencies like DoT, TRAI, RBI, or customs. As previously reported, Airtel has already implemented this in its network and others are in the process of doing so.