Skip to main content

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


Follow at - Telegram   Instagram   LinkedIn   X   Facebook

Comments

Popular Posts

Unified Payment Interface (UPI)

Unified Payment Interface (UPI) is one of the popular methods of digital payments. This article covers the important developments regarding UPI. Unified Payment Interface (UPI) Unified Payment Interface (UPI) is an initiative by National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) together with Reserve Bank of India (RBI) and Indian Banks Association (IBA). UPI allows linking of multiple bank accounts in a single mobile application for real-time bank-to-bank payments using mobile number, virtual payment address (UPI ID) or by scanning a QR code. Benefits of UPI Single application for accessing different bank accounts. Offers peer-to-peer fund transfer, merchant payments and utility bill payments. Allows payments using mobile number; virtual payment address (UPI ID); scanning QR code; bank account number and IFSC; and Aadhaar number. Secured payment with Two Factor authentication. Funds are transferred in real-time (i.e. immediately). Available round the clock i.e. 24*365. Allows both sending ...

Committees of RBI

Reserve Bank of India (RBI) forms committees to deliberate on various matters. A list of such committees is given below. Committee Chairperson Standing External Advisory Committee (SEAC) for evaluating applications for Universal Banks as well as Small Finance Banks Tenure of SEAC will be for 3 years. Previous SEAC was constituted under the chairmanship of Smt. Shyamala Gopinath, former Deputy Governor, RBI on March 22, 2021 Shri M K Jain, former Deputy Governor, RBI Framework for Responsible and Ethical Enablement of Artificial Intelligence (FREE-AI) in the Financial Sector Dr. Pushpak Bhattacharyya, Professor, Department of Computer Science and Engineering, IIT Bombay Expert Committee on Benchmarking of its Statistics Dr. Michael Debabrata Patra, Deputy Governor, RBI Committee on MIBOR Benchmark Shri R. Subramanian Committee for Review of Customer Service Standards in RBI Regulate...

Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934 – Part-II – Section 17 to 19

The Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934 provides the statutory basis of the functioning of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). In a series of articles, we will briefly go through the provisions of RBI Act, 1934. This is the second article in the series.  Section 17 – Business which the Bank may transact RBI shall be authorized to carry on and transact the several kinds of business hereinafter specified, namely – 17(1) – Accept deposit without interest from the Central / State Government, local authorities, banks and any other persons. 17(1A) – Accept deposit, repayable with interest, from banks or any other person under the Standing Deposit Facility Scheme, as approved by the Central Board, for the purposes of liquidity management.   Bills of Exchange (B/E) & Promissory Note (PN) Bearing 2 or more good signatures, one of which shall be of B/E & PN arising out of Maturing within 17(2)(a) Purchase, sale and rediscou...

Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934 – Part-V – Section 45B to 45JA

The Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934 provides the statutory basis of the functioning of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). In a series of articles, we will briefly go through the provisions of RBI Act, 1934. This is the fifth article in the series.  Chapter IIIA - Collection and Furnishing of Credit Information Section 45B – Power of Bank to collect credit information RBI may collect credit information from banking companies and furnish it to any banking company in accordance with section 45D. Section 45C – Power to call for returns containing credit information RBI may direct any banking company to submit statements relating to credit information. Section 45D – Procedure for furnishing credit information to banking companies A banking company may apply to RBI to provide credit information. RBI shall furnish the requested credit information without disclosing the names of the banking companies which have submitted the information. RBI may levy fees of up to Rs.25 for furnishing credit...

Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934 – Part-III – Section 20 to 40

The Reserve Bank of India Act, 1934 provides the statutory basis of the functioning of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI). In a series of articles, we will briefly go through the provisions of RBI Act, 1934. This is the third article in the series.  Chapter III - Central Banking Functions Section 20 – Obligation of the Bank to transact Government business RBI shall undertake – To accept monies for account of the Central Government and to make payments up to the amount standing to the credit of its account, and to carry out its exchange, remittance and other banking operations. Management of the public debt of the Union. Section 21 – Bank to have the right to transact Government business in India The Central Government shall entrust RBI with – All its money, remittance, exchange and banking transactions in India, and shall deposit free of interest all its cash balances with RBI. The Central Government may carry on money transactions at places where RBI has no branches or agencies and m...