Rising digital fraud: Centre pushes for 1600-series call adoption, pilot with 7 banks underway

The ‘1600’ series is a phone numbering range exclusively designated for all voice calls originating from regulated entities in the banking, financial services, insurance (BFSI), and securities sectors 

New Delhi: In a bid to tackle rising digital payment-linked fraud and misuse of telecom infrastructure, the government on Tuesday deliberated upon how to fast-track the implementation of the ‘1600’ mobile series.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) met the Joint Committee of Regulators (JCoR) in the national capital and discussed rolling out collaborative regulatory measures.

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The ‘1600’ series is a phone numbering range exclusively designated for all voice calls originating from regulated entities in the banking, financial services, insurance (BFSI), and securities sectors.

At the meeting, regulators discussed setting up timelines for migration to 1600-number series. Considering that entities have different scales of operation, they decided that migration may be made in a phased manner based on the inputs from sectoral regulators, an official statement said.

The committee also flagged the misuse of Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) and Primary Rate Interface (PRI) telecom lines for bulk spam. Options under discussion include issuing these lines from a designated number range and imposing additional safeguards to ensure responsible use.

Further, TRAI informed that a major pilot project is underway to give consumers more control over commercial communications by replacing unverifiable, offline consents with a secure digital consent framework.

This will enable consumers to digitally register, review, and revoke consents through a simple, unified and tamper-proof interface. Major banks such as SBI, PNB, ICICI, HDFC, Axis Bank, Canara Bank, and Kotak Mahindra Bank will co-ordinate with telecom service providers (TSPs) for the pilot project.

At the meeting, TRAI Chairman, Anil Kumar Lahoti, commended DoT’s recent launch of the Financial Fraud Risk Indicator (FRI), which labels numbers associated with financial scams. He reiterated that practical safeguards against spam and fraud are needed without placing undue burden on legitimate businesses. He urged sectoral regulators to accelerate implementation within their respective domains and monitor progress closely.

The committee also discussed the requirement of automated exchange of spam and cyber fraud data between Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C), Digital Intelligence Platform of the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) and DLT platform maintained by the access providers. Such coordination can help in swift action against the telecom resources of the fraudsters, including disconnecting their numbers.

Representatives from Reserve Bank of India (RBI), Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI), Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI), Pension Fund Regulatory and Development Authority (PFRDA) met with officials from different ministries.
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TRAI had recently revamped its SMS header portal to help customers get information about the entities sending commercial messages using a particular SMS header.