Airtel expands AI system to fight cyber fraud on its network
Airtel is expanding its AI-driven Safe Network with new features including OTP fraud protection to tackle rising cyber fraud.
As India's digital economy grows, the methods used by cyber fraudsters are changing just as fast. Earlier, most scams relied on spam calls and phishing messages, but cyber criminals are now turning to impersonation scams, fake banking requests, malicious links, investment fraud and OTP scams to steal people's hard-earned money.
According to data from the Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C), Indians have lost more than Rs 52,976 crore to cyber fraud, and this figure covers only the last six years. NCRB data also shows that cyber crime cases are steadily rising.
Digital services in banking, payments, healthcare, commerce and government services have become part of everyday life. As a result, users now expect telecom companies to provide not just good network and connectivity, but also security for digital services.
Recognising this need, Airtel launched its first network-based, AI-driven spam detection solution in 2024, combining network intelligence and artificial intelligence to protect customers from spam calls and SMS. The company later decided to expand this AI-based Safe Network initiative further, so that customers would not need to install a separate app or report threats themselves. According to the company, Safe Network has now become a complete package of several network-based digital security tools.
The first feature is OTP fraud protection, in which an AI-based system detects if an OTP or other sensitive information is being sought from a user during a suspicious conversation, and intervenes if this happens.
Before this, Airtel had launched a malicious link detection system that identifies fake websites and suspicious links in real time. According to the company, since this system began, it has blocked more than 16.2 lakh malicious links sent via SMS, messaging apps, email and browser redirects to all mobile and Wi-Fi broadband customers.
In September 2024, Airtel also launched an AI-driven spam detection system at the network level. The company says this system has since identified more than 98.4 billion spam calls and 4.4 billion spam messages.
Airtel has also introduced a feature called Business Name Display, which helps users tell the difference between verified business calls and potentially fake or fraudulent numbers. According to the company, this feature helps reduce the risk from those posing as banking or customer care executives to commit fraud.
