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Prevention of financial frauds perpetrated using voice calls and SMS

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has issued guidelines for prevention of financial frauds perpetrated using voice calls and SMS.

How shall Regulated Entities (REs) prevent financial frauds perpetrated using voice calls and SMS?

Regulated Entities (REs) shall –

  • Utilize the Mobile Number Revocation List (MNRL) available on the Digital Intelligence Platform (DIP) developed by Department of Telecommunications (DoT), Ministry of Communications, Government of India to monitor and clean their customer database. REs shall also develop Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) incorporating the required action to be taken including, inter alia, updating the registered mobile number after due verification; enhanced monitoring of accounts linked to these revoked mobile numbers for preventing the linked accounts from being operated as Money Mules and / or being involved in cyber frauds, etc.
  • Provide the verified details of their customer care numbers to DIP for enabling DoT to publish them on the “Sanchar Saathi” portal (https://sancharsaathi.gov.in/). 
  • Undertake promotional voice calls only through phone numbers using ‘140xx’ numbering series.
  • Undertake transactional / service calls only using ‘1600xx’ numbering series, when operationalized.
  • Follow the “Important Guidelines for sending commercial communication using telecom resources through Voice Calls or SMS” issued by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI).

What is Mobile Number Revocation List (MNRL)?

The DIP developed by DoT has the availability of MNRL on real time basis with various categories of disconnected mobile numbers such as mobile numbers (i) taken on fake / forged documents and failed in re-verification, (ii) involved in cyber-crime / financial fraud and reported by Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) / Law Enforcement Agencies (LEAs), (iii) reported by citizens and failed in reverification, (iv) disconnected by Telecom Service Providers (TSPs) based on their fraud analysis / exceeding limit, (v) reported for misuse by other organizations, and (vi) non-recharge / no-usage for long time etc.

What are Money Mules?

Money mules can be used to launder the proceeds of fraud schemes (e.g., phishing and identity theft) by criminals. In a money mule transaction, an individual with a bank account is recruited to receive funds and then transfer it to others, minus a certain commission payment. 

Money mules may be recruited by spam e-mails, advertisements on genuine recruitment web sites, social networking sites, instant messaging and advertisements in newspapers, etc. When caught, these money mules are likely to face legal action for being part of a fraud. 

What are some of the important guidelines for sending commercial communication?

  • All Senders (such as Banks, Mutual Funds, Insurance Companies, Stockbrokers, other Financial Institutions, Corporates, Enterprises, SMEs, big and small businesses, and any entity who wishes to send commercial communication to its existing or prospective customers) shall get themselves registered with any of the TSPs on DLT platform under Telecom Commercial Communications Customer Preference Regulations, 2018 (TCCCPR-2018) before sending any commercial communications through voice calls or messages using telecommunication services.
  • Senders shall use only ‘140’ numbering series for making promotional voice calls to their customers or prospective customers.
  • Senders shall use only ‘160’ numbering series for making transactional and service calls to their customers. Use of 160 series for promotional purposes may lead to disconnection of telecom resources to the Senders, in addition to any other action.
  • Senders shall ensure that they register their SMS / Voice Headers with any of the TSPs and send the commercial communications through SMS / voice to the customers using such registered SMS / Voice Headers only. 
  • Senders are required to get message Content Templates also registered with the TSPs. These Content Templates typically have fixed and variable components. 
  • Senders shall not use any other 10-digit fixed line / mobile number for making promotional / service / transactional voice calls to their customers, either directly or through their employees or channel partners, DSAs, BPO partner, in-house or outsources Call Centre, etc. 
  • Sending messages without the use of registered Headers and Content Templates or use of any other 10-digit fixed line / mobile number other than 140 / 160 series for making promotional / service / transactional voice calls by Senders may result in disconnection of all telecom resources of the Sender for up to 2 years and Sender shall also be put under the blacklist category for that period during which no new telecom resource shall be provided to such Senders by any TSP.
  • Senders shall ensure that they send their commercial communications by engaging only Registered Telemarketers (RTMs) or establish the direct connectivity with the TSP for this purpose.
  • Digital Consent Acquisition (DCA) facility, established by TSPs enables the acquisition of digital consent of the customer to receive commercial communication over SMS / voice from a Sender for a specific purpose. It enables Senders to send promotional communications over SMS and voice to its customers who have opted to block all promotional communications through Do Not Disturb (DND) registration. Senders shall onboard the DCA system for the acquisition of digital consent of the customers.
  • Misuse of any header of Sender to send unintended communication may lead to temporary suspension of Sender till such time it reports the incidence to concerned LEA and takes corrective action.

When and where shall customers file complaints?

  • To avoid the inconvenience caused by Unsolicited Commercial Communications (UCC), a customer can opt to block all commercial communications or can selectively block commercial communications as per preference categories through the TSP’s App / Website, TRAI DND App, or Call / SMS to ‘1909’.
  • In case of receiving spams in spite of registering on DND, make DND complaint at the respective TSP’s App / Website, TRAI DND App, or Call / SMS to ‘1909’.
  • Report any suspected fraud communication received within last 30 days on ‘Chakshu’ platform of DoT at https://sancharsaathi.gov.in/sfc/.
  • If customer has already lost money due to financial fraud, or is a victim of cyber-crime, report at cyber-crime helpline number ‘1930’ or website https://www.cybercrime.gov.in.


References

Reserve Bank of India. (2010, December 07). 'Operation of bank accounts and money mules'. Retrieved from https://www.rbi.org.in/scripts/NotificationUser.aspx?Id=6136&Mode=0

Reserve Bank of India. (2025, January 17). 'Prevention of financial frauds perpetrated using voice calls and SMS – Regulatory prescriptions and Institutional Safeguards'. Retrieved from https://www.rbi.org.in/Scripts/NotificationUser.aspx?Id=12770&Mode=0


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