The Reserve Bank of India has rolled out new guidelines aimed at curbing online fraud and cyber crimes, helping individuals recognize calls from fraudulent numbers. The RBI has introduced two specific series for marketing and banking calls. From now on, these types of calls will only originate from these designated numbers. Any calls received from numbers outside of these two series should be considered suspicious.
According to the RBI’s guidelines, banks are required to use the number series starting with 1600 for any transaction-related calls to their customers. They are prohibited from using any other number series for these communications.
Additionally, when it comes to promotional calls for services such as home loans, personal loans, car loans, credit cards, insurance, and term deposits, banks must use the series starting with 140. To make these promotional calls, banks and service-promoting companies must register with telecom operators to be included in a whitelist.
You can find protection against bank fraud
The RBI has highlighted in its guidelines that cyber criminals are increasingly using mobile numbers to carry out fraudulent activities. They are deceiving individuals through calls and messages that appear to be from banks. Recently, numerous reports have emerged of people being scammed through these phone calls and messages.
The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has shared the RBI guidelines with users via its official X account. This guidance from the RBI will be beneficial for millions of mobile users who receive calls related to banking services from various numbers. Users will be able to distinguish between legitimate and fraudulent calls by recognizing those coming from the numbers 1600 and 140.