The Department of Telecommunications on Thursday warned users about phone calls made with malicious intentions. They have been asked to be cautious of such calls, in which after dialing *401# they are asked to call an unknown number.
What happens by dialing *401#?
When users call any phone number after dialing *401#, the call will be forwarded to the dialed number and you will talk to whoever you want. All the details will go to the forwarded number. You may become a victim of fraud. The government has taken major action regarding this. The Department of Telecommunications has advised citizens to be wary of incoming calls with malicious intentions asking them to dial ‘Star 401 hashtag’ and then dial an unknown mobile number.
Scammers adopt this method to cheat
Explaining the modus operandi of the scam, the Department of Telecommunications said a fraudster would call a telecom customer and direct them to a customer service representative or technical support staff from their telecom service provider. After this the troublemaker says that either there is a problem with their SIM card or there is some problem related to the network or service quality. Then, the customer is asked to dial a specific code to fix the problem. The code usually starts with ‘Star 401 Hashtag’ followed by a mobile number. Once this is done, unconditional call ‘forwarding’ starts to the respective mobile number.
Stop call forwarding like this
As soon as you dial *#62# code in your dialer, you will know whether your call is forwarded or not. If your call is showing as forwarded, then you can deactivate it in this way. For this you will have to dial ##002# code in the dialpad. As soon as you dial this code, your call forwarding will be erased.