The Russian government has excluded from the list of licenses for the provision of communication services the license for the transmission of Internet data with the addition of voice information. It will no longer be possible to call mobile phone and landline numbers over the internet. According to published on the website The decision of the Council of Ministers was taken to combat telephone fraudsters.
“Such technologies were often used by fraudsters because they made it possible to manipulate numbers. “From now on, this type of telephone fraud will be severely limited,” the Council of Ministers emphasized.
The Council of Ministers assures that the measure will not affect ordinary telephone users and users of instant messengers, where calls are made without access to the landline and mobile phone network.
The decision will enter into force on September 1, 2025. Within the next six months, the Ministry of Digital Development will align its regulatory legal acts with this document.
To Mintsfiri explainedThe provision of communication services using IP telephony is not prohibited.
“For this you need a license to provide telephone services. “For the majority of well-intentioned operators, nothing will change as they already have such a license,” he said.
The Ministry of Digital Development also clarified that the changes will not affect voice calls in instant messengers, since in this case communication occurs without access to landlines and mobile networks.
In the press service of the provider “Rostelecom” statedHe stated that they did not see a problem with the government’s ban and that the restrictions would not affect the operation of the service.
“The initiative does not affect the provision of the Rostelecom Virtual PBX service in any way, as it does not violate the terms of the existing license. The company will take into account all necessary requirements when obtaining a new license,” the comment states.
Due to the increase in fraudulent activities, authorities are also discussing restricting voice calls in instant messaging programs. Roskomnadzor adopted on December 24 Blocking calls from abroad in instant messaging programs. Some Russian telecom operators are also working on this issue login Independent banning of calls from abroad by users.
Fraud and arson
Restrictions on IP telephony were introduced following a wave of arson and explosions of various objects committed by victims of phone scammers. With data There were 55 similar arson and explosions in Russia in the last week alone, the Ministry of Internal Affairs said. Perpetrators were summoned under the guise of representatives of state institutions (mostly security forces) and forced to commit crimes.
Law enforcement officials emphasize that such phone attacks are often carried out by foreign call centers. But their accomplices may be in Russia. So in Dagestan in the autumn detained Five people suspected of creating and executing a fraudulent scheme: criminals stole money from Russian citizens in the interests of Ukrainian call centers.
The investigation revealed that attackers used fake passports to enter into contracts with Russian telecom operators for the provision of IP telephony services and obtain landline phone numbers. They then provided Ukrainian citizens with access to this system with special equipment. They called Russians from these numbers, posing as law enforcement agencies, intelligence agencies, and banks.
The damage caused by fraudsters exceeded 100 million rubles.
FSB letter
Summer FSB of Russia sent A letter to telecom operators calling for a ban on the use of VoIP accounts from foreign IP addresses and hosting Russian providers.
Nikolay Metlyuk, CEO of Piter-IX explainednow customers of operators are increasingly receiving virtual numbers and renting virtual PBXs to provide telephone services.
“At the same time, traffic coming through the virtual PBX goes to an unknown destination; If scammers use it, it cannot be traced. The expert said that if operators start following the instructions in the letter, it will help in the fight against fraudsters.
VoIP telephony allows you to transmit a telephone signal over the Internet and convert the incoming digital stream into an analog telephone signal.
Roskomnadzor launched the Anti-Fraud system at the end of 2022 to combat voice calls to fake numbers. to him today connected Interfax reported that more than 1 billion calls from scammers have already been blocked with the help of all telecom operators.
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Source: Gazeta
Jackson Ruhl is a tech and sci-fi expert, who writes for “Social Bites”. He brings his readers the latest news and developments from the world of technology and science fiction.