Government Launches ‘Sanchar Saathi’ App to Combat Telecom Frauds, Track Stolen Mobiles

In the last few years, cases of fraud through mobile have increased rapidly. To deal with this problem, some measures have also been taken by the Central Government. In this series, ‘Sanchar Saathi’ app has been launched to increase telecom security and protect from fraud. Through this, stolen or lost mobile can also be blocked.

Communications Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia said that the objective of Sanchar Sathi mobile app is to enhance telecom security and empower citizens. This app is available for both Android and iOS platforms. This will provide users with tools to deal with telecom fraud and increase the security of their information on mobile.

Through the Chakshu feature of this app, suspicious or fraudulent calls and SMS can be reported directly from the mobile log. On this app, it can also be found out how many mobile connections have been issued in the name of the user. Through this, lost or stolen mobiles can be blocked, traced and recovered. The authenticity of the handset can also be confirmed on the Sanchar Saathi app. Recently, the Department of Telecom (DoT) had disconnected more than 85 lakh mobile connections. Of these, there were more than 78 lakh mobile connections which were made using fake documents. Apart from this, more than six lakh mobile connections were linked to cybercrime.

Earlier, DoT had implemented a tool based on Artificial Intelligence (AI) to increase security in the telecom sector. These mobile connections were disconnected after the analysis done on this tool. DoT has also strengthened the Know Your Customer (KYC) framework for issuing mobile connections and new guidelines have been introduced in this regard for telecom companies. Under these guidelines, telecom companies will have to do strict verification of all Point of Sale (PoS). A new rule of Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) called message traceability has also come into effect. This rule will help in reducing spam messages. In the new system, the person sending the message can be tracked till its delivery.