Bharati Airtel has developed an AI/ML-based solution to proactively detect, prevent and eliminate phishing spam through messaging and is testing it in partnership with HDFC Bank.  

 The solution creates an anti-spam filter, and at its peak, it succeeded in detecting and blocking two million messages a day, the telco said in a letter to the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) chairman PD Vaghela. 

 The letter stated that direct connectivity had been established between Airtel and HDFC to help secure end-to-end SMS connectivity and flag any other route. 

 Airtel is also in talks with the banking industry and other entities to demonstrate the solution. Curbing phishing and cyber frauds through unsolicited commercial communication has been the topmost priority of Trai and other financial regulators as it leads to estimated financial losses worth Rs 1000-1500 crore every month. 

 In addition to mandating the telcos to deploy distributed ledger technology to curb fraud and spam messages, Trai has also asked them to deploy AI-based solutions to tackle the menace of financial fraud/phishing. 

 Airtel’s solution sits outside the mandated DLT process and has been deployed over the past two to three months. It tags the band and telemarketer so that there is no misuse of the header or template. Headers are the short code that appears in the sender id for promotional or transactional messages, and template refers to a predefined message format that brands register with the telco. 

 The solution also has a feature to protect customers from getting fraud or spam messages from the A2P (application to person) or P2P (person to person) route. 

 The company has also undertaken action to detect UCC by imposing a cap on more than 100,000 numbers which has also helped reduce P2P spam. 

Airtel stated in the letter that “based on the requirements, the anti-spam solution is designed with rules, and significantly introduced the checks based on the combination of header and URL/Call to Action”. 

The company added that they have proactively suspended the highest number of templates- more than 1,30,000 till date, including the template susceptible for misusing the HDFC brand name. 

The telco also extended support to Trai to curb unsolicited commercial communication in the industry.