In recent years, many people have fallen victim to scams where callers pretend to be from banks or financial institutions. These scammers often use frightening tactics, such as threats of shutting down your account or cutting off your services, to pressure victims into following their instructions right away.
Even when people feel unsure about whether calls, emails, or websites are real, they usually don’t have a good way to check if the person or source is trustworthy.
Introducing a new verification system
Considering this evolving problem, the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has developed a new system that allows citizens to verify if the messages they receive—via email, contact number, or website—truly belong to the concerned bank or institution.
This newly launched portal is integrated within the Sanchar Saathi portal. The new system allows users to find official information about any bank or financial institution. You can search by entering the name of the bank, its website, email address, or phone number.
When the search is successful, the portal gives you all the important information about the institution. This includes their official website, email address, phone numbers, toll-free numbers, WhatsApp contact, and other ways to reach customer support.
This feature helps people confirm the accuracy of information. For instance, if someone gets a questionable phone call from someone claiming to be from their bank and feels unsure about it, they can check the phone number in the system to see if it's real or not.
DoT promotes the initiative
The Department of Telecommunications announced the portal via a post on X (formerly Twitter), stating:
"Empowering Citizens with Safe Digital Choices! Think before you share, scammers often pretend to be from trusted institutions. Always verify using trusted contact on #SancharSaathi before you act. For verification click on this link - https://www.sancharsaathi.gov.in/FinancialInstitutions/fiHome.jsp".
Portal's limitation
Currently, the portal suffers from significant omissions. Although information for most government-owned banks is readily available, many entries—such as that for ICICI Bank—are incomplete, missing crucial contact details like official and WhatsApp numbers. The portal's limited functionality is further highlighted by the fact that searches for major regulatory bodies like the Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) or the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) yield no results.
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