Department of Telecommunications (DoT), Ministry of Communications, has taken a pro-active drive to prevent malicious incoming calls and safeguarding cyber crimes and frauds.

The Department has advised citizen to beware of receiving malicious incoming calls asking them to dial *401# followed by some unknown mobile number.

This activates unconditional call forwarding received on mobile of citizen to the unknown mobile number. This allows fraudster to receive all incoming calls and can be used for fraud.

The DoT explains how the scamsters  operate and their Modus Operandi:

1. The fraudster calls the telecom subscriber and pretends to be a customer service representative or technical support staff from their telecom service provider.
2. The fraudster states that either there is a problem with their SIM card or there is some issue related to network or service quality and they need to dial a specific code to fix the problem. This code usually starts with *401# followed by a mobile number.
3. After doing so unconditional call forwarding is activated on their mobile number and all incoming calls etc. are forwarded to the fraudster's mobile number.
4. The fraudster then receives all incoming calls and can be used for fraud.

 

The DoT has been actively informing all users and reiterates regularly How to protect yourself:

1. The telecom service providers never ask their subscribers to dial *401# 

2. Check your mobile phone settings for call forwarding and disable immediately in case it is enabled. Use the facility only when it is required.

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DK/DK/SMP

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