• Source:JND
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A march in cybercrime across the breadth of India has led to Bharti Airtel suggesting a Joint Telecom Fraud Initiative with fellow telecommunications operators Reliance Jio and Vodafone Idea (Vi). The company has also brought to the attention of the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) and the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) this programme aimed at controlling the upsurge of phishing scams.

Rising Threat of Telecom Scams

Amid several complaints, certain government data exhibits over 1.7 million cybercrimes along with financial losses exceeding eleven thousand crores in the first nine months of 2024. This data alone was enough to provoke a multifactor collaboration framework approach from Airtel to fight against the evolution of schemes involving misuse of digital communication infrastructures and exploiting service providers.

Airtel's Proposed Measures

A letter sent to the Telecom Secretary and Chairman of TRAI included some primary components of Airtel's proposal dated 14 May, 2025.

- Information pertaining to fraud being shared in real time between networks and servers

- Remediation of identified telecommunications fraud

- Blocking of more ill-intended website links across social media and messaging apps.

This proposal builds upon the October 2024 initiative from Airtel concerning Unsolicited Commercial Communications (UCC). The initiative contained the establishment of a registering and DLT-like system that is centralized and used for coordination of data monitoring and spam tracking aimed at telecom service operator unification.Protection Powered by Technology

Technology-Driven Protection

Airtel has implemented an artificial intelligence solution which detects and blocks spam and fraudulent websites on platforms such as WhatsApp, Telegram, Facebook, and Instagram. The company is now working towards extending this form of protection to include detection of malicious links throughout networks and other platforms.

Customer awareness emails will be sent by Airtel’s Vice Chairman and Managing director Gopal Vittal regarding:

- The history of telecom related scams

- How scammers posing as bankers, utility service providers, and couriers attempt to deceive individuals

- The company's protective measures, which include always-on, mobile, and Wi-Fi network fraud detection systems.

- Collaboration at an Industry Level is Important

Industry-Wide Collaboration Needed

Airtel emphasized that singular attempts are inadequate because scammers target multiple digital platforms. The company called for a collective partnership among all Telecom Service Providers (TSPs) to establish a comprehensive sophisticated national framework to address this issue.