Department of Telecommunications (DoT) under the government of India has blocked around 34,951 Accounts and 73,789 WhatsApp Groups & Communities through its Chakhsu portal with the help of the customers reporting the suspicious nature of these efforts. This is one of the biggest actions taken against the fraud initiatives being performed through WhatsApp, earlier efforts include last month's efforts by agencies wherein 17,000 WhatsApp accounts were blocked. 

The department has been highly vigilant in tackling the menace of fraud and spam to ensure a safe and secure telecom space for the end-users. 

Vigilant Citizens x Department of Telecom = Action Taken!

???? 34,951 Accounts Blocked
???? 73,789 WhatsApp Groups & Communities Banned

Your report makes a difference.

Spot fraud? Report it to Chakshu on https://t.co/6oGJ6NTnZT pic.twitter.com/U8S1Qf7HW0

— DoT India (@DoT_India) January 10, 2025

Previous efforts 

It had blocked around 85.11 lakh mobile connections to clear up the telecom ecosystem back in December. Further, the fake numbers were disconnected by the telecom service providers after re-verification whereas 6.78 lakh mobile connections of 85.11 lakh were disconnected based on the reports of involvement in cybercrime. 

Other efforts 

DoT has revised the existing KYC instructions, including the discontinuation of the previous bulk connections framework and the introduction of a business connections framework. The new framework requires the KYC of each end-user to be completed before activation. Moreover, a comprehensive KYC process for Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) swaps and replacements has been introduced. Along with these, the paper-based KYC process has also been discontinued.

Success making strides 

The press release published earlier by the department shows a successive decline in the data regarding complaints against spam calls. It declined from  1,89,419 in August 2024 to 1,63,167 in September 2024 showing a decline of 13 percent. It further declined to 1,51,497 in October 2024, showing a cumulative decline of around 20 percent. 

Efforts by Telcos 

Airtel released its spam report a few weeks back, 2.5 months after the launch of its AI-powered spam-blocking mechanism. It has claimed that its system has successfully blocked a staggering 8 billion spam calls, and 0.8 billion SMSes along with identifying around 1 million spammers every day. 

Read more about the report at: No more spam calls all day, Airtel’s AI-powered spam-blocking mechanism tramples 8 billion calls since its launch 

This December itself, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) successfully ensured the industry's full and final compliance with the message traceability guideline to tackle spam from now on. This marks a successful end to all the efforts ushered in by the TRAI  and Telcos to ensure a safe and secure telecom space for users.  

Read the latest report on DoT’s Sanchar Sathi portal receiving 9 Crore visitors to learn more about the Telecom Space.