NEW DELHI: India's Department of Telecommunications (DoT) is stepping up its fight against telecom scams. Following the success of the Sanchar Saathi website, two new projects were unveiled by Ashwini Vaishnaw, Minister of Communications, Electronics & IT. These are called 'Digital Intelligence Platform (DIP)' and 'Chakshu', and they're aimed at increasing teamwork to prevent telecom misuse related to cybercrimes and financial scams.
Chakshu, which translates to "eye" in Hindi, allows regular people to help stop fraud. If you get a suspicious call, text, or WhatsApp message, you can report it quickly and easily on the Sanchar Saathi website. You'll need to describe the fraud, show screenshots, give some details, and use OTP verification. But don't worry - your information stays safe. The government promises to keep it private.
Lt. Gen. Dr SP Kochhar, head of the Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI), thinks Chakshu is a great way to stop cyber scams. He believes we all need to work together, with more scams happening as technology advances.
The DoT created the Digital Intelligence Platform (DIP) as a safe way to share information quickly. DIP is used by Telecom Service Providers (TSPs), police, banks, financial institutions, social media platforms, and ID issuers. DoT uses it to store data about telecom misuse, help users in different areas and act as a back-up for requests made on the Sanchar Saathi website. It gives the right information to the right people, based on their roles.
DIP solves the problem of not having a common place to share info on possible fake connections. Banks, payment apps, police, and others can flag suspect numbers. These are double-checked by TSPs and cut off if need be. Cut-off numbers go onto a big list to stop fraud through cross-checks.
Minister Vaishnaw talked about building a complaints portal. This would help report wrongly cut-off connections and give back stuck money to people. This work is done with the RBI and the Financial Services Department. The soon-to-be-launched Sanchar Saathi app was shown as another way to make sure telecom services in India are safe.
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