Airtel working on tech to wipe out scam, phishing

Following the success in curbing spam on its network, Bharti Airtel is working on a technology that will aim to eradicate online scam or phishing attempts through text messaging and calls for its more than 380 million mobile users, said a top official at India's second-largest telecom operator.

The service, when ready, will prevent scamsters from misusing one-time passwords (OTPs) and online links, the official said. "We have not yet found the solution, but we are about 80% there. Once we crack a solution, there will be no fraud on the Airtel network," the official said on condition of anonymity.

The official, however, lamented that the proposed technology won't work on over-the-top (OTT) apps, which is "not right" for consumers, and called on the government and telecom regulator to bring OTT communication apps under the regulatory framework to check the menace.

"Identification of spam is very high on our network due to our artificial intelligence (AI) based spam solution. But it doesn't work on OTTs, because the traffic is encrypted and we can't intervene," he said. The official emphasised that Airtel users should not receive spam messages sent from OTT platforms and pushed for regulations to curtail spam on such platforms. "Spam is a menace for everyone, regardless of the platform. All stakeholders should come together to actually kill spam," he said.

Bharti Airtel did not respond to email queries.

Telecom operators have been highlighting the growing menace of spam and scam on OTT platforms. Measures to control them are however ineffective on OTTs as they are not regulated, either by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) or the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai).

According to estimates, India-home to a large and growing mobile user base and low phone tari ff-is among the world's top markets for SMS phishing.

Some industry estimates say one of every 12 mobile users is vulnerable to phishing every month. More than 120-150 million phishing messages are sent every month, with 60-75 million unique citizens vulnerable to attacks. Around 300,000 people get scammed, but only 35,000-45,000 report such incidents.