Call Forwarding Scheme: The government has issued a warning to millions of mobile phone users in the country. The Department of Telecommunications has asked users to be wary of calls that ask to call an unknown number by dialing the ‘STAR 401 Hashtag’ (*401#). This allows criminals to make all incoming calls to the user’s number. Taking advantage of this, cyber criminals can empty the bank account by calling the user’s mobile number and asking for OTP i.e. One Time Password.
Do not dial *401# by mistake.
The Department of Telecommunication has asked all telecom customers of Airtel, Jio, Vodafone-Idea, BSNL to be wary of such incoming calls. Earlier also the case of *401# call forwarding scam has come to light in October. Criminals pose as agents for online delivery, banks or other services and ask users to call the number. Users fall into the trap of criminals and by entering this special USSD code, they allow all incoming calls to their phones on unknown numbers given by cybercriminals.
Fraud in the name of network upgrade
Cybercriminals pretending to be banking agents or telecom operator support call the user and ask them to dial the number to resolve a network problem or some other problem. The Department of Telecommunications has asked consumers to ignore any such service calls and not use the above numbers for call forwarding.
Stop forwarding calls like this.
If users fall victim to cybercriminals and turn on call forwarding, they need to turn it off immediately by going to their smartphone’s settings. For this, users have to go to the phone’s settings. You can then disable the call forwarding option or create default settings by going to call settings.
– With PTI (language) input
Call forwarding scam fraud