BSNL warns users about SMS frauds, asks not to give out personal information

BSNL issued a notice alerting its users about recent SMS frauds and noted that the telco is not asking for any personal information or KYC details of users through SMS.

Government-owned telco Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (BSNL) issued a notice alerting its users about recent SMS frauds. BSNL warned users to not give out personal information to fraudsters who are retrieving information in the garb of BSNL employees asking for KYC details failing which their BSNL SIM will be suspended. BSNL then noted that the fraudsters are using KYC details through SMS to withdraw money from a customer’s bank account. The headers of these spam messages read like ‘CP-SMSFST, AD-VIRINF, CP-BLMKND, and BP-ITLINN’. The development was first reported by Telecom Talk. SMS headers or senders ID is a combination of six characters that represent the company name of the message sender. The new SMS rules introduced in 2018, were implemented by telecom operators from March 8, 2021, leading to delays in SMS and OTP generation affecting net banking, Aadhaar-enabled transactions, railway ticket bookings, and vaccine registrations.