Starting Monday, new regulations to address fraudulent SIM swaps and replacements by cybercriminals will take effect. These rules, issued by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) as part of the Telecommunication Mobile Number Portability (Ninth Amendment) Regulations 2024, were introduced in March this year and will be enforced from July 1.
TRAI’s amendments are designed to prevent the fraudulent porting of mobile numbers through SIM swaps or replacements by unscrupulous individuals. Under the new regulations, an additional criterion for rejecting requests for a Unique Porting Code (UPC) has been established. A UPC request will be denied if it is made within seven days of a SIM swap or replacement. This measure aims to curb the increasing incidents of fraudulent SIM swaps, which have serious financial consequences for users.