DoT suspends 2 telemarketers for sending fraud messages

Mumbai: The telecom department has suspended the operations of two telemarketing entities – V-con Intelligent Security, which is part of the Videocon Group, and OneXtel Media – who were found responsible for sending 55.5 million fraudulent SMSes to telephone users since January 2024.

“In the interest of safeguarding the citizens from cybercrime/financial frauds, all the TSPs (telecom service providers) are directed to: immediately suspend these two RTMs (registered telemarketers)…(and) lodge police complaint against them for misusing DLT platform for sending malicious and phishing SMSes,” the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) said in the direction dated July 15.

ET saw a copy of the order.

Following several complaints filed by telecom users on the Chakshu portal about malicious SMSes, the DoT ordered blacklisting of 131 principal entities (PEs), 5,000 SMS content templates, and 700 SMS headers, as per officials involved in the investigations.

But it was noted that fraud senders came up with new headers to cheat the blockchain-based SMS filtering system.

It was also found that one among these two entities – V-con and OneXtel – had received money from bank accounts that were involved in multiple complaints of organised transnational crimes, including illegal stock investment frauds, officials said.

An investigation is under progress by Gujarat Police in this matter, they added.

OneXtel has strongly opposed the government’s suspension on grounds that the company was not given any opportunity to present its case. It has also refuted that it is not involved in any fraud bank transactions.

“We are in cognizance of DoT’s order but also surprised on how the government has casted the burden on a reputed telemarketer like us operating since nine years,” said Abrar Chunawala, chief executive of OneXtel Media. “It must be noted that we were never intimated about the department’s action, no show-cause notice was served.”

He said the company processes 400 million messages per month. “The 55.5 million ballpark figure given in the order, presumably is for 6 months and belongs to two entities. Let’s assume 17 million of these were passed through Onextel. This represents only 0.06% of our total traffic. Is it then fair to suddenly put a company out of business for such a small percentage? As per regulation, it is the responsibility of telecom companies to operate the DLT system. Are they not at fault along with their DLT tech partners?” Chunawala said.

V-con Intelligent Security couldn’t be reached for a comment. Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel, and Vodafone Idea did not immediately respond to ET’s emailed queries on the matter.

As per market estimates, both V-con and OneXtel are handling monthly SMS volumes of between 2-4 billion from various businesses and are expected to lose business worth somewhere between Rs 24-40 crore.

Following DoT’s suspension, genuine businesses using their services will be required to use the services of alternate vendors, experts said.

Further, DoT has also asked TSPs to immediately suspend all entities, their linked headers and content templates involved in sending malicious SMSes which are being reported by users on the Chakshu facility of Sanchar Saathi Portal.

Back in March, the telecom ministry had launched the Chakshu facility for users to report cyber frauds. It also created a Digital Intelligence Platform to enable real-time intelligence sharing among various stakeholders including telecom operators, law enforcement agencies, banks and financial institutions, and social media platforms, among others.

Even for voice calls, DoT had recently allocated a separate numbering series easily identifiable to recipients.

Meanwhile, the telecom regulator has aggressively pressed telcos to strengthen their anti-scam technology solutions, while also meeting sector regulators like the Reserve Bank of India, Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) and Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India for cross-sector partnership to weed out cyber frauds.