The Sanchar Saathi portal has been used by 15.5 crore people nationally, marking a key milestone in digital security activities, according to Union Minister for Communications Jyotiraditya Scindia, who also revealed substantial accomplishments in the government’s fight against telecom fraud.
The massive reduction of 97% in international spoofed calls is a remarkable achievement of the anti-fraud initiative of the Indian government in its bid to curb cyber fraud and telecom-based scams across borders. The highly concerted effort by the Centre with the telecom service providers and the regulatory authorities, through multi-faceted ways, has pulled down the daily volume of spoof calls from the earlier 13.5 million to just 300,000.
“Earlier, we were receiving 1.35 crore spoofed calls per day. Now these calls have been reduced to just 3 lakh daily,” the Minister announced.
The success came after the launching of the International Incoming Spoofed Call Prevention System in October 2024. Within the next 24 hours of launch, over 1.3 crore spoofed international calls were detected and blocked. The success manifestly illustrates the government and increasing reliance on tech-enabled governance for public good and resolve to combat cyber fraud at scale.
Tech-Driven Verification, AI and User Empowerment
One of the pillars of this plan is the application of AI and data analytics for the detection and deactivation of fraudulent mobile connections. The ASTR (AI-based Telecom SIM Verification) system has now analyzed 134 crore+ mobile connections and disconnected over 82 lakh SIM cards attributable to falsification or fake documents.
In addition, more than 1.75 crore numbers were disactivated by surpassing usage limits. AI working with user-friendly instruments can be seen with the Sanchar Saathi portal, which has enabled over 15 crores users to check, report and block suspicious numbers. Furthermore, the government barreled on the physical distribution networks, blacklisted more than 71,000 outlets in fraudulent SIM issuance and filed more than 780 FIRs.
More than 35 lakhs lost or stolen mobile devices have been safeguarded using the Central Equipment Identity Register (CEIR) function. Out of them, 5.07 lakh gadgets have been successfully recovered and given back to their owners, while 21.35 lakh devices have been tracked down.
Cross-Sector Collaboration and Continued Vigilance
The Digital Intelligence Platform (DIP) is a centralized fraud-tracking ecosystem that has brought together 620 organizations from the telecom, finance, law enforcement and social media sectors. The exchange of information regarding telecom frauds on this platform is real-time and has played a critical role in blocking 5.1 lakh mobile handsets and 24.46 lakh WhatsApp accounts associated with scams.
Cybercrime in Telangana DGP Sikha Goyal emphasized the state’s outstanding mobile phone recovery performance. “Telangana currently leads the nation in mobile phone recovery. We have collected and given around 88,301 cell phones to victims so far,” she said.
Telecom carriers, in concurrence, were required to put an alert of International Call on the mobiles in order to distinguish incoming calls of foreign origin from domestic calls. The result was great user complaints dropped sharply from 2,776 in January 2025 to single digits by June 2025.
Cross-sector collaboration has been credited as a model framework to tackle cyber frauds. As fraudsters evolve their methods using VPNs and international spoofing techniques, India’s success story is testimony that a combination of technology and regulation coupled with citizen awareness can form a formidable wall against cyber fraud.
