Govt’s Crackdown on Scam Calls Works: 97% Drop in Spoofed Calls, 82 Lakh Fake SIMs Disconnected

Union Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia shared that the government’s strong steps against telecom fraud are working well. The Sanchar Saathi portal has helped around 15.5 crore people across India. One of the biggest achievements is a 97% drop in fake (spoofed) calls. Earlier, there were around 1.35 crore fake calls every day, but now it's only about 3 lakh calls a day.

Many phone numbers have been shut down—1.75 crore connections were cancelled for crossing allowed limits. Also, 82 lakh connections were stopped using an AI-based system called ASTR, which finds fake IDs used to get SIM cards. The government also blocked 5.1 lakh phones and 24.46 lakh WhatsApp accounts believed to be used in scams. Moreover, 20,000 bulk SMS senders were blacklisted to stop fake messages.

Tools Helping People and Police

The CEIR system helped find more than 35 lakh lost phones. Out of these, 21.35 lakh were traced, and 5.07 lakh were given back to their owners. The Sanchar Saathi portal has had over 16 crore visits, with nearly 2 lakh people using it daily. It offers tools like "Not My Number" and "Not Required" to report wrong or fake numbers.

In Telangana, the police found and returned over 88,000 lost phones, making it the top state in mobile recovery across India. The success is due to good training of officers in every district. The CEIR service on the portal lets people report lost phones quickly, blocking them across all networks to stop misuse.

Steps to Stop International Fraud and Fake SIMs

The CIOR system, started in October 2024 to stop fake calls from outside India, blocked 1.35 crore spoofed calls within just one day. Now, all international calls show a label saying "International Call" so people can be more careful. Also, 308 foreign carriers were banned for sending fake calls. Complaints about such frauds dropped from 2,776 in January to single digits by June 2025.

The Digital Intelligence Platform (DIP) now connects 620 groups, including police, telecom companies, and government departments, to fight scams. Using ASTR, the government checked 134 crore SIMs, removed 82 lakh fake ones, and found cases where the same face was used with different documents to get SIMs. As part of the crackdown, 71,000 retail shops were blacklisted, and 780 FIRs were filed.