Aadhaar cards have become the norm for almost all official work, ranging from KYC authentication to employment to any sort of identity verification in India. All Aadhaar cards are linked to your personal mobile number. However, there has been an increase in the cases of frauds and scams in India, where fraudsters link a legitimate Aadhaar card to a different mobile number. The Department of Telecommunications (DoT) has decided to implement a few steps to tackle this menace.
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It has launched a website called Telecom Analytics for Fraud Management and Consumer Protection (TAFCOP), which allows users to check if there are other mobile numbers linked with their unique Aadhaar numbers. This process ensures that no unknown or suspicious numbers are linked to the same Aadhaar card. Moreover, if the same person has multiple phone numbers, they can also link the extra numbers to their Aadhaar card, so that the usage of the Aadhar card is regularised all over the country.
How to check SIM cards registered to Aadhaar ID on DoT’s TAFCOP website
Nonetheless, the TAFCOP website does mention that if there are any changes or updates to the Customer Acquisition Forms (CAF), it has to be handled by the service providers. Once you check the numbers linked with your Aadhaar card, you can ban the numbers that do not belong to you or the numbers that you no longer want associated with your Aadhaar card.
Here’s how you can check the numbers that are linked to your Aadhaar card. Keep in mind that this service is only available for Telangana and Andhra Pradesh consumers at this moment. The service is being expanded to other regions.
- Open your web browser and visit the Telecom Analytics for Fraud Management and Consumer Protection (TAFCOP) website.
- Enter your contact number in the space provided for the same.
- After you enter your mobile number, click on the “Request OTP” button.
- An OTP will be sent to your phone number, which you will have to re-enter in the space provided on the website.
- Once the number validation process is done, a new window will open that will display all the numbers that are associated with your Aadhaar card.
- From all the numbers displayed, you can individually choose the numbers that don’t belong to you or are no longer in use.
- After selecting the numbers, the options will be shown for either blocking or reporting the numbers. Choose the option that is most appropriate in your case.
How many mobile numbers can be registered or linked to one Aadhaar card?
Government regulations dictate that a particular user can register a maximum of nine mobile numbers to their existing Aadhar card. If you have more than nine numbers linked to your Aadhaar card, the portal will send you an SMS to verify the same. From there, the link provided in the SMS or the TAFCOP website will give all the instructions necessary for you to take action.