The Centre on Tuesday warned miscreants against tampering or spoofing of telecom resources, like mobile numbers, IP address, IMEI and SMS headers, as such offences are punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend to three years, or up to Rs 50 lakh fine, or both.

Fraudsters are deploying various tactics for misuse of telecom resources. The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has observed cases where miscreants acquire Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) cards or other telecommunication identifiers like SMS header to send bulk SMS to citizens through fraud, cheating or personation.

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“It has also been observed that some persons procure SIM cards in their name and give them to others for using. Sometimes the persons to whom the SIM has been given, misuses it for cyber-frauds, making the original user also an offender,” said the Ministry of Communications.

The Department has undertaken various initiatives for prevention of misuse of telecom resources for cybercrime and financial frauds.

It has also been observed that in some cases, SIM cards are being procured through fake documents, fraud, cheating or personation.

“This is an offence under the Telecommunication Act, 2023. At times it has been found that the Point of Sale has been involved in facilitating such procurements which tantamount to abetting in the offence,” said the Department.

Cases have also been observed where miscreants modify the telecommunication identifiers like Calling Line Identity (CLI), commonly referred to as phone number through various means like Mobile Apps.

Other telecom identifiers that uniquely define a user or a device like IP Address, IMEI (Mobile handset identifier), SMS headers are also tampered to either send fraudulent message.

All such activities violate the provisions of the Telecommunication Act, 2023 and are considered offence under this Act. Section 42 (3) (c) of the Telecommunications Act, 2023 specifically bars tampering of telecommunication identification.

“Under Section 42(3), such offences are punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend to three years, or with fine which may extend up to fifty lakh rupees, or with both. Section 42 (6) of the act also envisages same punishment for those who abets any offence under the Act,” the Department informed.