India disables 34 million phones to combat telecom fraud

The Indian government has taken major steps to combat telecom fraud. Over 3.4 crore mobile connections have been disconnected, and 3.19 lakh IMEI numbers have been blocked. This action comes from the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) through its Sanchar Saathi portal. In addition to mobile disconnections, DoT has also deactivated around 16.97 lakh WhatsApp accounts. The government is using artificial intelligence and big data to identify and address fraudulent activities. More than 20,000 bulk SMS senders have been blacklisted as part of this effort. Dr. Pemmasani Chandra Sekhar, the Minister of State for Communications, shared these details in a statement to the Rajya Sabha. He noted that citizens can report suspicious communications via Sanchar Saathi. The DoT then analyzes these reports to combat misinformation and fraud. Telecom service providers have blacklisted 1,150 entities and cut off about 18.8 lakh resources linked to fraud. This has helped reduce complaints about unregistered telemarketers from over 189,000 in August 2024 to about 135,000 in January 2025. Recent changes made by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) also improve the complaint process against spam communications. Customers now have seven days to report spam, up from three days. Furthermore, the time for telecom providers to respond to complaints has been shortened to five days from thirty.