COAI Urges Public To Avoid Clicking On Fraud Messages

COAI has advised users to be careful of fraud messages that claim the Government offers free recharging services to 100 million users. The telecom industry body said that clicking on such links or messages might increase the possibility of data theft.

The Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) also shared a screenshot of the message, which claims that the Government is offering a free recharging service to 100 million customers for online education. The message also claims that customers of Reliance Jio, Airtel, and Vodafone-Idea are allowed to take advantage of this offer for three months.

"We want to caution the public about this scam. If you get such a message, do not click on the Link as it could lead to data and information theft from the mobile device and can have other serious consequences. By simply deleting and not forwarding such message, we can together fight this menace and save others from getting cheated," Lt. Gen. Dr. SP Kochhar, Director General, COAI.

Delhi High Court Views On Fraud Messages

Notably, online scams are not new to the telecom industry, which is why Delhi High Court asked the telecom regulator to direct Reliance Jio, Vi, Airtel, BSNL, and MTNL to take check fraud messages. The Telecom Authority of India has also announced new regulations for curbing fraud messages. The new SMS regulation comes under Telecom Commercial Communications Customer Preference Regulations.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has asked all telecom operators and Telemarketers to block spam messages and calls. In fact, TRAI has issued a list of 40 companies that are sending spam messages to customers. TRAI also said that SEBI, RBI, and IRDAI direct companies to stops these messages.

"We request regulatory bodies, Central and State departments, Industry bodies, to impress upon organizations under their control to implement these regulations effectively in consumers' interest," TRAI said.

It is worth noting that Telecom operators have already started following the new regulations. Besides, TRAI has asked telecom operators to inform all telemarketers and banks to follow or comply with new regulations. This comes after the telecom regulator suspended new regulations for a few days.