DoT Issues Order Seeking Temporary Suspension of USSD-Based Call Forwarding Facility

The Division of Telecommunications (DoT) issued an order dated March 28 looking for a brief suspension of USSD-based name forwarding service. The order cites the rise of on-line scams and unwarranted utilization of the power as the explanation behind the motion. It’s a momentary suspension, which means the federal government physique doesn’t intend to completely disable it, nonetheless, the official letter didn’t specify any date for its reinstatement. Notably, the company launched the Chakshu Portal final month as a facility for the individuals of India to report suspected fraud communications.

In an order, the DoT stated that it had seen that the USSD-based call-forwarding facility was being “misused in some unwarranted actions” pointing at its utilization for committing on-line scams and fraud. The suspension additionally hints on the facility’s vulnerability in safety. “ On this regard, it was determined by the competent authority that every one licensees shall discontinue the present USSD primarily based name forwarding companies with impact from 15.04.2024 until additional discover,” the regulator added.

The timing of the suspension may be associated to minimising the circulation of misinformation amid the upcoming Lok Sabha elections scheduled to start out on April 19. As soon as the ban is in impact, customers will be unable to activate the service by getting into the *401# code. For all of the customers who have already got the service activated on their telephone quantity, the order acknowledged, “All present subscribers who’ve activated USSD primarily based name forwarding service could also be requested to reactivate name forwarding companies by different strategies to make sure that such companies should not activated with out their discover.”

USSD or Unstructured Supplementary Service Knowledge is a session-based text-messaging service that doesn’t require sending SMS and as an alternative is activated by getting into a specific code on the dialler display screen. These codes set off particular telecom-based companies comparable to steadiness info, caller tunes activation, web utilization particulars, and name forwarding. Since these companies are offered by the telecom operator, there isn’t any have to obtain an app.

Nevertheless, in latest instances, this function has been misused by cybercriminals. A number of reviews have discovered that fraudsters impersonated buyer care representatives from the sufferer’s financial institution or telecom operator, and would get them to dial the 401 name forwarding code, adopted by a quantity that was already within the palms of the scammers. As soon as name forwarding was activated, they might intercept any calls, together with voice-based OTPs to steal sufferer’s cash and delicate knowledge.