Beware of ‘mobile tower’ scams

By Qamar ZJ

Despite a public notice three years ago by the Department of Telecommunications (DoT), the mobile tower scams are still quite common across India. Therefore, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India has again begun an SMS campaign to educate people that either the DoT or the TRAI does not give a ‘no objection certificate’ (NOC) for the leasing of premises to install mobile towers. The CyberCrime cell of Bangalore has also issued an advisory on social media this month to highlight the fraud.

But what is the scam, really? Well, some companies, agencies or individuals, send WhatsApp messages, text messages, and even release advertisements in the media that they will pay an attractive monthly rent to people leasing their premises for erecting mobile towers. The scamsters ask you to pay money to get an NOC from TRAI or DoT, when no such certificate exists.

Some people fall for the trap, and the fraudsters end up extracting money from them in the name of security deposit, application fee, registration fee, stamp duty, government tax or for clearing of the advance payment. As the money is in the range of Rs 6000, people pay up without proper verification, and never hear from the scamsters again.   

Therefore, whenever TRAI or DoT sends you an email, SMS, or WhatsApp message that they don’t directly or indirectly levy any tax or fees on leasing the premises for installation of a mobile tower, they are referring to this fraud. So who erects mobile towers? It is usually done by the telecom service provider (TSP) or infrastructure service provider (IP-I) whose list is available on the DoT website.

Therefore, before you fall prey to it, the TRAI is asking you to verify the authenticity of TSP/IP-I from their portal. If you come across such a fraudulent case, file a police complaint or inform the local Telecom Enforcement, Resource and Monitoring (TERM) Cell whose contact details are also available on the DoT website.

While the DoT site is quite a maze by itself as the user interface is not as easy, we managed to locate the approved list of IP-I companies as on 4/2/2019, while the list of telecom service providers was available on the TRAI website. You don’t have to go through these lists to detect a fraud. If you are asked to pay an advance fee for tower installation for any reason, it’s a fraud, and you should immediately inform the cops. 

TRAI also created a video in 2018 to spread awareness about this scam. However, not too many people have watched it. Are you one of them? Then, watch it below.