An FIR has been filed by the Telangana Cyber Security Bureau against three telemarketing firms. They are said to have indulged in sending fraudulent commercial SMSes using registered headers and templates of financial service firms.
After receiving a complaint from ValueFirst Digital Media Private Limited, a case has been filed against Onextel Limited, Nimbus Adcom Private Limited, and TVL Media Private Limited.
This is in connection with the use of registered SMS headers and templates of KFin Technologies Limited and Nariman Finvest Private Limited which are government-owned firms.
It was said that both the registered headers and templates of both the companies were used to send fraudulent commercial SMSes. ValueFirst said that its own investigation showed that unauthorized/unregistered telemarketing companies were behind both the events.
In the complaint, Nimbus Adcom Private Limited is said to be the reseller telemarketer for Onextel Limited, and Onextel is the last delivery telemarketer.
It has been charged that all the three – Onextel Limited, Nimbus Adcom Private Limited, and TVL Media Private Limited have indulged in abusing the DLT PE-TM scrubbing/hash technology. They copied the registered headers and templates of other firms and sent out fraudulent content through short links to the customers. The DLT hash appeared to represent a legitimate registered chain.
The complaint identifies Onextel as involved in both cases. In the Nariman case, Onextel was identified in ValueFirst's records. According to the complaint, Vodafone-Idea also confirmed that it was the final delivery telemarketer.
In the Kaffin case, TVL Media was identified as the delivery telemarketer. The complaint states that TVL Media is a group company of Onextel, and both companies have the same registered address in Noida. The Nariman chain identifies Nimbus Adcom as Onyxtel's upstream reseller telemarketer.
According to the complaint, KFin Technologies is registered on DLT and sends SMSes to investors using registered headers such as KFINTH and KFINMF through five authorized telemarketers and aggregators.
On July 9th, the "KFINTH" header was blacklisted without notice. KFin later discovered that a fraudulent SMS containing their header and a dangerous short link had been sent that same day.
No logs were found in ValueFirst's records, indicating that the message was not sent from their chain. According to delivery records, the telemarketer who sent this fraudulent message was TVL Media Private Limited, which is not on KFin's authorized list and is affiliated with Onyxtel Limited.
According to the complaint, another allegedly fraudulent message was sent on July 30th using the same misused template. The complaint states that these incidents led to repeated blacklisting of KFin headers at the telecom and DLT scrubbing levels during July and August, preventing genuine OTPs and transaction alerts from being sent to investors.
A similar fraudulent message was sent on July 30th. These fraudulent incidents led to repeated blocking of KFin headers during July and August, preventing the timely delivery of crucial OTPs and transaction messages to investors.
Stockbroking company Nariman Finvest Private Limited has been using ValueFirst's SMS services since January 2018. On August 3rd, a fraudulent SMS containing a dangerous short link was sent using the company's registered header.
Although ValueFirst clarified that no such message was sent from their platform, the accompanying hash code appeared to be from their chain. Vodafone Idea later revealed that Nimbus Adcom Private Limited was the reseller associated with the message, and Onextel was the final delivery telemarketer.
The Telangana Cyber Security Bureau has registered a case under several serious sections of the Indian Penal Code and the IT Act regarding this fraud and misuse of data, and further investigation is underway.
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