In a recent study employing artificial intelligence (AI), the Union Ministry of Communications found that 40.87 lakh (0.47%) of the 87.85 crore mobile phone connections examined across India were secured using forged documents. There are 131 crore subscribers in 22 Licenced Service Areas (LSA) circles across the nation. However, only 87.85 crore connections were examined in phase 1.
ASTR, an artificial intelligence and facial recognition-powered solution for telecom SIM subscriber verification, detected 40.87 lakh fraud connections on Tuesday. Of those, 38 lakh such numbers have been disconnected, according to an internal communication sent on Tuesday by K Rajaraman, secretary from the Ministry of Communications, to Chief Secretaries and Director Generals of Police of all states and Union Territories.
In phase 1 of the analysis, which examined 87 crore mobile connections across 22 LSA circles in India, it was also discovered that 44,582 telecom service provider Point of Sales (PoS) were involved in the sale of these connections.
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The analysis of 1.20 crore mobile connections in Jammu and Kashmir revealed that 15,194 of these connections had been secured using fabricated or false documents, on which the investigators had discovered the same faces but different identities. In Jammu and Kashmir, 14,494 lines were disconnected due to the fraudulent connections, and 3024 PoS were placed on a blacklist.
Similarly, 5.33 lakh numbers were discovered to have been obtained using forged documents in the Haryana circle, where 3.08 crore connections were examined. 5.24 lakh phone numbers were terminated as a result, which was the most in phase 1. Almost 3.17 crore numbers were assessed in the Punjab circle, and 1,51 lakh were discovered to be fraudulent connections, while 1.44 lakh numbers were disconnected.
Five FIRs were registered in Haryana, but only 13 in Punjab. Out of 4.52 crore connections evaluated, West Bengal circle saw the largest number of fraudulent connections (12,34,114), yet not a single FIR was filed. “More FIRs need to be filed against the offenders in order to stop the threat,” said the Ministry’s communique.
