Cases of cyber fraud are increasing rapidly, due to which WhatsApp takes massive action every month and bans millions of accounts. If there is a report of scam, fraud or any suspicious activity related to an account, first the company investigates and if evidence is found the account is banned without any delay. Every month the company provides this information in the monthly report so that the people and the government know that the company is taking strict measures to protect the users.
Why does the government need the ban account data?
The Indian government now wants to increase the impact of these restrictions. Talks are underway with WhatsApp to share the data of these blacklisted numbers so that these numbers can be blocked across all digital platforms, so that criminals cannot continue the scam by simply switching apps.
According to a report in the Economic Times, the government is concerned that the current system is not enough to completely prevent fraud. Although WhatsApp’s compliance reports provide transparency, they currently do not prevent a banned user from switching to another service.
Officials have said that while WhatsApp bans some mobile numbers, many of those numbers move to other messaging apps like Telegram and continue scamming. Although the government is aware of the removed accounts, there is no clear information on how and why WhatsApp itself takes the decision to ban the accounts. WhatsApp discloses data on how many accounts were banned, but does not provide any other information.
Scammers often use popular messaging apps like WhatsApp and Telegram. Once you set up an account with a phone number, you can use it without a physical SIM card. This makes it very difficult for the authorities to track down these criminals. When was the SIM card issued and to find out if the information related to it is correct or not?