The department of telecommunications (DoT) on Tuesday cautioned the users against misuse of telecom resources such as SIM cards, SMS headers, and international mobile equipment identity (IMEI), among others.
The same because the government has observed that miscreants acquire SIM cards or other telecommunication identifiers like SMS header to send bulk SMS to citizens through fraud, cheating or personation. Further, some people procure SIM cards in their names and give them to others for use. This leads to cyber-frauds, making the original user also an offender, DoT said.
“This is an offence under the Telecommunication Act, 2023. At times it has been found that the Point of Sale has been involved in facilitating such procurements which tantamount to abetting in the offence,” DoT said in a release.
Under Section 42(3) of the Telecommunication Act 2023, such offences are punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend to three years, or with fine which may extend up to Rs 50 lakh or with both. Section 42 (6) of the Act also envisages same punishment for those who abet any offence under the Act.
Lately, cases have also been observed where miscreants modify the telecommunication identifiers like Calling Line Identity (CLI), commonly referred to as phone number through various means like mobile apps. Other telecom identifiers that uniquely define a user or a device like IP Address, IMEI (Mobile handset identifier), SMS headers are also tampered to either send fraudulent messages, DoT said.
