DoT detects around 1.52 lakh suspected fake mobile connections in Meghalaya and five other NE States

Syllad | The Rising MeghalayaMay 11, 2023

The Department of Telecom (DoT) has detected around 1.52 lakh suspected connections subscribed based on fake/forged documents involving many Points of Sale (PoS) of different Telecom Service Providers (TSPs) in six states of North East LSA – Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland & Tripura.

More than 1.47 lakh mobile connections that failed in re-verification process have been disconnected by TSPs in the region. So far, TSPs have blacklisted 493 PoS and registered 71 police complaints against the suspected Points of Sale for further investigation and necessary actions against the culprits.

Cybercrimes, financial frauds and antisocial activities are mainly committed through SIMs fraudulently subscribed on forged documents. In order to detect and weeding out such suspected SIMs, DoT has taken up the initiative of conceptualizing and implementing an innovative and indigenous Artificial Intelligence and Facial Recognition Powered Solution for Telecom SIM Subscriber Verification (ASTR) – the NextGen platform aimed for preventing the cybercrimes. The system uses subscriber images and database of Telecom Subscriber Providers (TSPs) to detect fraudulent subscriptions.