Over 50,000 fake mobile phone connections of different telecom service providers in Odisha have been disconnected to thwart possible misuse of mobile phones forun lawful activities by the users, according to a statement issued by the Ministry of Communications.
A total of 52,088 suspected mobile connections have been detected in Odisha.
On the direction of the department, those suspected mobile connections were reverified by the telecom operators. As many as 51,260 connections were found to be ‘not bonafide’ during the process and disconnected, it said.
The Department of Telecommunication (DoT)had implemented artificial intelligence (AI)-based facial recognition tool, ASTR, for telecom SIM subscriber verification. The DoT implemented the tool for suspected misuse of the mobile phones for illegal activities.
Fake mobile phones apart, as many as 2,417 point of sales SIM sellers were involved in fraudulent activities and blacklisted. The DoT Odisha has lodged police complaints for investigation and taking action against the culprits.
These steps were taken to help prevent the usage of such fake/forged mobile connections for various illegal activities including cybercrimes in Odisha, the statement concluded.