Some 30 million people are vulnerable to phishing attacks in India, of which 5 lakh may fall victim to scammers, a top official at cloud communications company Tanla Platforms said here.

The Hyderabad-based company unveiled an anti-phishing platform to prevent phishing messages from reaching subscribers here during Mobile World Congress 2023 and is currently conducting tests on the Vodafone Idea network.

Speaking to PTI, Tanla Platforms Founder, Chairman and CEO, D Uday Reddy said that while the solution was developed in India, the problem is global and Tanla has interests from other parts of the world.

“According to our estimates, there are approximately 30 million people vulnerable to phishing attacks in India, out of which 5,000 people may be scammed. We found that only 7 percent of those who are scammed report the crime for a variety of reasons. The anti-phishing platform will detect the scam within a minute of its launch in India,” Reddy said.

The platform was created by the head of the telecoms regulator, PD Vaghela, who said Tanla developed the platform at his request as the agency is very concerned about phishing scams.

Reddy said there are 10-11 segments like fake utility bill alerts, know-your-customer verification, etc. where most phishing scams take place and scammers use both SIM cards and apps for fraudulent activities.

“We have to make sure that the fraudulent messages don’t reach the user. To achieve this, this platform is not only connected to mobile operators, but also to platforms … like Google, WhatsApp. We also have a partnership with some takedown service agencies that take down phishing sites,” Reddy said.

He said evidence of the shutdown of phishing websites will be prepared by the company’s platform and handed over to agencies and law enforcement agencies.

“Not only does the platform eliminate fraud, it also helps regulators eliminate scammers,” Reddy said.

He said the company has started developing solutions to check voice call-based scams, which are expected to roll out over the next two quarters.

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