DoT to fine Rs 10,000 for fraud messages with fake headers

The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) will impose a fine of upto Rs 10,000 per violation and permanent disconnection of all telecom resources of commercial SMS senders who dupe customers by sending fraudulent SMSes with fake headers.

Any sender who is caught sending an SMS using invalid header will be fined in the range of Rs1,000 to Rs 10,000 per violation, plus permanent suspension of the sending mobile number or sender ID, depending on the number of violations, a DoT notice issued on Monday said.