Around 5 lakh people potentially fall victim to phishing scams in India: report

The Hyderabad-based company unveiled an anti-phishing platform during the Congress to prevent phishing messages from reaching subscribers and is running trials on Vodafone Idea network.

Tanla Platforms founder, chairman and chief executive officer D Uday Reddy said while the solution has been developed in India, the problem is global and Tanla has seen interest from other parts of the world.

“As per our estimates, there are around 30 crore people in India who are vulnerable to phishing attacks out of which 5 lakh people potentially get scammed. We have noticed that only 7% who get scammed report about the crime due to various reasons. The anti-phishing platform will detect the scam within a minute it is introduced in India,” Reddy said.

The platform was launched by telecom regulator Trai Chairman PD Vaghela who said Tanla developed the platform following his request as the authority is very much concerned about phishing scams.

Reddy said there are 10-11 segments like fake electricity bill alerts, know your customer verification etc where most of the phishing scam happens and scammers are using both SIM and apps for fraudulent activities.

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“We have to ensure that the scam messages don’t reach the user. In a bid to do so, this platform is not only connected with mobile service providers but also with platforms…like Google, WhatsApp. We have also partnered with some take down service agencies that bring down phishing sites,” Reddy said. He said the evidence to take down phishing websites is prepared by the company’s platform and handed over to take down service agencies as well as law enforcement agencies.

“The platform not only eliminates the scam, it helps the regulator to eliminate scamsters,” Reddy said.

He said the company has started developing solutions to check voice call based scams which are expected to be launched in the next two quarters.