As we know that phone call scams have been in the market for ages and each one of us have come across such a call during our lifetime. But this is where the Department of Telecom (DoT) has launched an innovative solution that can help make out the difference between a legitimate call and an automated call by scammers.
DoT has introduced a numbering series of 10 digits that begins with 160 for service and transactional calls that originate from government bodies, financial institutions, or regulatory agencies. This will help citizens track and get a clear sign of the caller, telecom operator, and its place of origin. Further, this aims to give a clear distinction between fraud or scam calls and genuine calls.
This new numbering series will be available in a 1600ABCXXX format for government, financial institutions, and telecom operators. In this, AB represents the circle code of telecom (e.g., 22 for Mumbai, 11 for Delhi), whereas the C represents the telecom operator code. And finally, the XXX refers to digits between 000 to 999.
In the same sense, financial institutions that are regulated by RBI, PFRDA, SEBI, and IRDA, will have the numbering format as 1601ABCXXX.
It is the responsibility of the telecom service providers to verify each entity before they assign a number from the 160 series.
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