India is collectively blocking over 13 million calls per day that present a domestic number despite originating outside of the country, per an interview given by Jyotiraditya Scindia, the Minister for Communications. This follows an INR387mn (USD4.6mn) government funding allocation for the country’s Centralized International Out Roamer (CIOR) system in July of this year. CIOR went live in October and immediately enabled a massive increase in the number of calls blocked because they were spoofing Indian mobile numbers.
The mind boggles at what India is accomplishing with its national strategy for using technology to protect people from spam and scam calls and messages. Meanwhile some of the world’s most ‘advanced’ economies waste years arguing about what is technically feasible. India’s success shows that simple but effective strategies for reducing spam and scam traffic can be implemented quickly at enormous scale with great effect. They are succeeding because the government provides leadership whilst acting as a genuine partner to the private sector. This contrasts sharply with other countries where politicians spend more time posturing than leading, and the private sector uses debates about technology to obfuscate what is actually to struggle over who will generate the most profit from the development of anti-fraud systems and processes.
