The Indian government recently introduced the Chaksu Portal to address the pressing issue of spam calls, SMS, and fraudulent messages. This innovative platform aims to empower citizens in dealing with the nuisance that is becoming more troublesome with the increasing digitisation of processes. Given India’s continuous struggle against a surge in fraud and privacy breaches, the launch of the Chaksu Portal represents a move towards safeguarding the country’s digital landscape.
India faces hurdles in combatting spam calls, SMS inundation and cybercrime due to the exploded adoption of smartphones and rapid digital growth. Statistics reveal that India is among the top countries globally for receiving volumes of spam calls and messages per user. In 2021, Indian mobile users were bombarded with over 26 billion spam calls — an indication of the scale of this issue. More than 65% of Indians receive at least three or more spam calls every day. One out of every two spam calls are made by telemarketers/system-generated calls intending to sell financial services. Every third spam call offers real estate.
But telemarketers are not the sole culprits behind spam calls or SMSs in India.
Cybercrime cases in India have been increasing at an alarming rate for the last few years, encompassing threats like phishing attacks, identity thefts, online frauds and data breaches. Many of these are executed via spam calls/SMSs.
Introducing Chaksu Portal
The Ministry of Telecommunications under the Union Government has launched the new Chaksu Portal, which acts as a hub where citizens can report instances of spam calls, unwanted messages, and fraudulent activities. It equips individuals with tools to address threats proactively.
When users encounter any situation, they can go to the portal and file a complaint, sharing information – source, number, etc – about unwanted calls, SMSs, or even WhatsApp Messages. The portal gathers these complaints and sends them to the authorities for investigation and necessary actions. The Chaksu Portal strives to reduce spam and cyber risks by simplifying the reporting procedure and enabling responses, ultimately improving India’s security.
Users will have a 30-day window to report any suspected fraudulent call or SMS.
To provide a complete 360-degree solution the government has seamlessly integrated all the stakeholders with platform called Digital Intelligence Platform (DIP). All the banks, law enforcement agencies and private financial institutions or intermediaries would be cooridnating though this in an effort to avoid misuse of telecom resources.
“Chakshu will allow Indian citizens to report fraudulent communication–whether received on call or SMS or social media like WhatsApp. Once such information is received, the platform will trigger re-verification, and failing re-verification the number will be disconnected,” says Ashwini Waishnav, the UNion IT and Communication Minister.
Through the portal, the government is primarily focused on handling cases related to sextortion, impersonation of government officials or banking officers asking for KYC validation, expiry or similar fraudulent activity.
How to lodge a complaint related to spam calls or SMS:
- Visit Sanchari website, and scroll down to click on Citizen centric Services.
- Select Chakshu portal option and subsequently click on Continue in order to proceed to report the suspected phone call or message.
- The system will now ask you to feed the medium of suspected activity, like call, text message or whatsApp message.
- An appreciate category must be selected to report this communication. Then you need to attach a screenshot of the call or message to establish the authenticity of your claim.
- Click Next, then the system asks you to key in the details about the suspected mobile number, date and time of the fraud communication.
- In the final step, you are required to feed your own personal details like full name, date of birth and phone number and enter a one time password (OTP) sent to your phone to register the complaint.
While Chakshu is indeed a commendable effort from the government of India to address digital nuisance, its effectiveness in countering spam calls, SMS and fraudulent messages is yet to be seen.
Critics argue that the portal’s success depends on strong enforcement mechanisms, quick grievance disposal, and cooperation between government agencies and telecom operators. The portal must also have the potential to respond to emerging digital threats by adopting innovative techniques such as artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to enhance its long-term functionality.
In its quest to deal with the massive problem of spamming telephone calls, messages, emails or cybercrime, initiatives like Chaksu Portal offer hope for a safe and secure digital future in India. Nevertheless, these can only be accomplished through a collective approach involving various stakeholders such as government bodies, telecommunication firms, technological organizations and the ordinary population aimed at developing a culture of responsible digital citizenship. Using technology effectively, creating consciousness about it and promoting partnerships could make India safer against computer attacks thereby offering more accessible digital habitat to all people within the society.
