Paytm Moves Delhi High Court, Claims Telcos Not Preventing Phishing Activity

Paytm alleges telecom service providers are not blocking fraudsters performing "phishing" activities

One97 Communications Ltd, which runs the online payment platform Paytm, has moved the Delhi High Court alleging that telecom service providers are not blocking fraudsters who are defrauding its customers by "phishing" activities over the various mobile networks.

Paytm has claimed that millions of its customers have been defrauded by the phishing activities over the mobile networks and the failure of the telecom companies to prevent the same has "caused financial and reputational loss" to it for which it has sought damages of Rs 100 crore from them.

Phishing is a cybercrime where people are contacted by email, phone calls or text messages by someone posing as a legitimate representative of a organisation to lure them to part with their sensitive data, including banking and credit card details and passwords.

Paytm, in its petition, has contended that the telecom majors — Airtel, Reliance Jio, BSNL, MTNL, and Vodafone — are violating their obligations under the Telecom Commercial Communications Customer Preferences Regulations (TCCCPR) 2018 which was notified by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) to curb problem of unsolicited commercial communications.

Paytm has contended that under the regulations, the telecom companies are required to verify purported telemarketers seeking registration (called registered telemarketers or RTMs) with them before granting access to their customer data and also take action immediately against all fraudulent RTMs.

The petition has contended that the telcos "failure" to undertake proper verification prior to such registration enables fraudulent telemarketers to carry out phishing activities against customers of Paytm and its associate companies.

It has further contended that under the statutory regime it is the telecom companies responsibility to prevent such fraud and deter the fraudsters through blocking and/or financial disincentives.

Explaining the modus operandi of the fraudsters, Paytm has said that such people or entities get registered with the telecom companies and get assigned themselves headers, like Paytm, PYTM, PTM, IPAYTN, PYTKYC and its derivatives, which are similar to official headers of Paytm -- including BPaytm, FPaytm, PAYTMB, Ipaytm and mPaytm -- and then send messages to its customers for getting their sensitive and private information, including account details and passwords.
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