DoT recovered 8.5 lakh stolen mobiles: Director-General

The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has tracked down and returned 8.5 lakh stolen mobile handsets to their owners based on complaints lodged through the Central Equipment Identity Register (CEIR) service, a centralised system implemented to manage and track mobile devices, on the Sanchar Saathi portal, said Ramesh Kumar Goyal, Director-General, Telecom.

He was addressing the media on the sidelines of the annual South Zone Conference on Telecom Security organised by the DoT on Thursday (February 12, 2026). Mr. Goyal noted that the recovery of stolen mobile handsets had more than doubled, rising from two lakh in 2024 to 4.5 lakh in 2025. Customers can lodge complaints about stolen mobiles or request to block a connection on the Sanchar Saathi portal to prevent misuse. Since its launch in 2023, the portal has recorded 24 crore visits, while its app, introduced in 2025, has been downloaded by 1.9 crore users.

The financial fraud risk indicator (FRI), introduced by the DoT, has helped prevent cyber fraud worth around ₹1,400 crore in the past nine months. Rolled out in May 2025, FRI indicates the threat perception of an incoming call, whether it is high, medium, or low risk.

Mr. Goyal added that the DoT’s digital intelligence platform (DIP), introduced in 2023, contains data on 122 crore telecom customers, which was being analysed using artificial intelligence and facial recognition software. Around five crore connections have been closed in the past two-and-a-half years.

Deb Kumar Chakrabarti, member (Services), Digital Communications Commission (DCC), under the DoT, said that globally, cyber fraud worth around 11 trillion dollars was reported annually, making it the third-largest economy in the world. In India, cyber fraud amounts to ₹24,000 crore a year, rising at an alarming rate of 265% annually, according to the national cyber crime reporting portal.

Mr. Chakrabarti emphasised that customers should not refrain from reporting cyber fraud simply because they receive an alert about monetary loss, assuming there was no point in reporting since money had already been lost. There is a window of two to four hours before the bank actually transfers the amount, he said.