Fraudulent Phishing Is Still Continuing Unabated Despite Telecoms Claiming The Contrary: Paytm Informs Delhi HC

The said affidavit was filed before the Division Bench of Chief Justice DN Patel and Justice Prateek Jalan.

The Petitioner informed the court that in the reply received from MTNL it is stated that MTNL has blacklisted all sender IDs/Headers deceptively similar to the Petitioners'. Moreover, it has also blocked all content containing the words PAYTM and deceptively similar derivatives, except from the whitelisted/official sender accounts of the Petitioners and their associates.

Apart from MTNL, it is informed in the affidavit, that Airtel has also identified the telemarketer responsible for making phishing calls and have delisted the same.

It is further submitted by the Petitioner the despite assuring the court during the last hearing about blocking the errant telemarketers, the headers and SMS content templates deceptively similar to the Petitioners' continue to be registered/assigned by the Respondent Telcos.

It is also highlighted by the Petitioner that the menace of Unsolicited Commercial Communications ("UCC") through Unregistered Tele-Marketers ("UTMs") has continued unabated.

The affidavit also states that on June 19, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India issued a direction under Section 13 of the TRAI Act, 1997 directing the Telcos to publish a complete list of the headers and the associated principle entities who have registered on the DLT.

Moreover, on June 22, TRAI published an "Information Note to the Press" stating that in order to facilitate identification of principle entities who are in the business of sending commercial communication, the Authority has published a list of SMS headers along with the names of the Principles Entities.