Bharti Airtel has reportedly developed an artificial intelligence (AI)/machine learning (ML)-based solution to proactively detect, prevent, and eliminate phishing, spam and fraud messages. The operator is testing the solution in partnership with HDFC Bank.
In a letter to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), Airtel informed that the solution creates an anti-spam filter, and at its peak, it succeeded in detecting and blocking 2 million messages in a day. The telco said that direct connectivity has been established between Airtel and HDFC Bank to help secure end-to-end SMS connectivity and flag any other route. The company is also in talks with the banking industry and other entities to demonstrate the solution.
Airtel’s solution is beyond the mandated distributed ledger technology (DLT) process and has been deployed over the past 2-3 months. It tags the brand and telemarketer so that there is no misuse of the header or template. The solution also has a feature to protect customers from getting any fraud or spam messages from the application-to-person (A2P) or person-to-person (P2P) route. In the letter, the telco explained that based on the requirements, the anti-spam solution is designed with rules and introduces checks based on the combination of header and URL/call to action (CTA).
Further, Airtel informed that it has also undertaken action to detect unsolicited commercial communications (UCC) by imposing a cap on more than 100,000 numbers which has also helped reduce P2P spam. As a result, it has proactively suspended the highest number of templates – more than 130,000 till date, including the templates which were susceptible to misusing HDFC Bank’s brand name.
