Airtel Launches New AI-Powered Protection from ‘Frauds Caused by OTP Leakages’

KOCHI:
As part of its ongoing efforts to combat the menace of spam, Airtel, today, unveiled its innovative Fraud Alert, an AI-powered, cutting-edge solution that delivers real-time protection to customers against the rapidly growing menace of One-Time-Password (OTP)-related bank frauds.

Fraudsters exploit the urgency often associated with OTPs for day-to-day services like delivery, and dupe customers into sharing banking-transaction-OTPs, thereby exposing their account savings to the risk of fraud.

Airtel’s new AI-powered system identifies such potentially risky situations and warns the customers involved. Whenever a bank OTP is detected during a potentially risky incoming call, Airtel intervenes with a fraud alert check to the customer about the potential risk of giving consent for a banking transaction OTP to be delivered while they are still on the call. This powerful combination of AI-driven intelligence and human judgment gives customers the crucial time they need to think, verify, and stay firmly in control of their security, effectively closing the gap scammers exploit.

Commenting on the initiative, Shashwat Sharma, Managing Director & CEO Airtel, India said, “We are on a mission to make Airtel the safe network. While working towards this, we have realised that despite the foundational role played by One-Time Passwords (OTPs) in securing digital transactions, their efficacy is frequently being undermined by criminal tactics. We are, therefore, pleased to announce a significant advancement in Airtel’s network layer that is designed to strengthen protection against banking frauds.

Our newly developed, AI-powered, autonomous solution operates proactively at network level and is engineered to detect and intervene against fraudulent activity in real-time. Extensive trials have demonstrated a remarkable level of accuracy and impact in preventing the menace of such scams.”

Over the past two years, Airtel has rolled out AI-powered, tech-led safeguards like spam- call warnings and malicious link-blocking to stop frauds at the source. While it has succeeded in its efforts to reduce fraud on its network to a great extent, fraudsters have continued to exploit human vulnerabilities through impersonation and social engineering. This breakthrough feature designed to protect mobile phone users is yet another step to protect its customers from digital fraud.

This solution is already live in Haryana and Airtel will roll it out to 100% of its customers over the next two weeks.