DoT asks telcos to discontinue USSD-based call forwarding facilities from April

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DoT asks telcos to discontinue USSD-based call forwarding facilities from April



Recently, there has been a surge in fraud by scammers using the call forwarding method. The fraudsters call the telecom subscriber and pretend to be a customer service representative or technical support staff from their telecom service provider. They then claim there is a problem with the subscriber’s SIM card. Subsequently, these fraudsters ask the subscriber to dial the code *401# followed by a mobile number. After doing so, unconditional call forwarding is activated on the subscriber’s mobile number, meaning all incoming calls, etc., are forwarded to the fraudster’s mobile number.In January 2024, the Department of Telecommunications advised users to beware of receiving malicious incoming calls asking them to dial *401# followed by an unknown mobile number.The government has been taking various steps to stop fraudulent calls in the country. On 29 March 2024, it issued an advisory warning people not to answer WhatsApp calls or share any personal details from foreign numbers, such as those starting with +92-xxxxxxxxxx.



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