SHILLONG:
The Department of Telecom (DoT) has detected around 1.52 lakh suspected connections subscribed based on fake or forged documents involving many Points of Sale (PoS) of different Telecom Service Providers (TSPs) in six states of the North East LSA: Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, and Tripura.
TSPs in the area have severed more than 1.47 lakh mobile connections that failed the re-verification process. For further investigation and appropriate action against the offenders, TSPs have so far banned 493 PoS and filed 71 police complaints against the suspected Points of Sale.
The majority of cybercrimes, financial frauds, and antisocial activities are carried out using SIMs that have been falsely subscribed on forged documents. In order to detect and weed out such suspected SIMs, DoT has taken up the initiative of conceptualising and implementing an innovative and indigenous artificial intelligence and facial recognition-powered solution for telecom SIM subscriber verification (ASTR)—the NextGen platform aimed at preventing cybercrimes. To identify phoney subscriptions, the system analyses subscriber photos and consults a database of telecom subscriber providers (TSPs).