Bhubaneswar: In order to curb cyber crimes and other illegal activities, the Department of Telecommunication (DOT) has disconnected 51,260 fake SIM cards of different Telecom Service Providers in Odisha. Department of Telecommunication (DOT) has conceptualized and implemented AI (Artificial Intelligence) based facial recognition tool called ASTR for Telecom SIM Subscriber Verification with a vision to analyze, identify and weed out fake/forged, non-bonafide mobile connections for curbing the menace of Cyber Crimes. It analyzes the combined subscriber database of all the Telecom Service Providers (TSPs) and detects non-bonafide mobile connections. The system uses subscriber images and compares the same with other subscriber images and the output is generated in groups of similar images with different names of the same person. ASTR has identified 52,088 suspected mobile connections issued by different Telecom operators in Odisha. As per the directions of DoT Odisha, these suspected mobile connections were re-verified by the concerned telecom operators and as a result 51,260 connections were found non bonafide and disconnected. Based on analysis, a total of 2,417 no of Point of Sales (PoSs)/SIM sellers who were involved in such fraudulent activities have been blacklisted. Further Police complaints have been made for investigation and taking necessary action against the culprits. The steps will help to prevent the usage of such fake/forged mobile connections for various illegal activities including Cyber Crimes in Odisha.
