The Department of Telecommunications (DoT), Ministry of Communications, has advised citizens to beware of receiving malicious incoming calls asking them to dial *401# followed by some unknown mobile number.

This activates unconditional call forwarding received on mobile of citizen to the unknown mobile number and allows fraudster to receive all incoming calls and can be used for fraud, the department said.

The DoT explains that the fraudster calls telecom subscriber and pretends to be a customer service representative or technical support staff from their telecom service provider. The fraudster states that either there is a problem with their SIM card or there is some issue related to network or service quality and they need to dial a specific code to fix the problem. This code usually starts with *401# followed by a mobile number.

Once the subscriber dials the number, unconditional call forwarding is activated on their mobile number and all incoming calls etc. are forwarded to the fraudster’s mobile number. The fraudster then receives all incoming calls and can be used for fraud.

DoT reiterated that telecom service providers never ask their subscribers to dial *401# and also advised all users to check their mobile phone settings for call forwarding and disable immediately in case it is enabled. Use the facility only when it is required.