Verify Bank Contacts on Sanchar Saathi — citizen guide 2026

Did a caller, email or website claim to belong to your bank? Do not trust the claim or the displayed caller ID. Check the institutional contact through the Department of Telecommunications' Trusted Contact Details directory, then start a fresh call or visit yourself.

This is independent citizen guidance from RTI Wiki. It is not the Department of Telecommunications, Sanchar Saathi, the Reserve Bank of India, a bank, a financial institution, the police or a payment service. Never enter banking credentials on RTI Wiki. Use only the official government and institutional links cited below.

Trusted Contact Details is a Department of Telecommunications directory within Sanchar Saathi. It helps citizens compare a claimed bank or financial-institution name, website, email address or contact number with institutional details shown by the official portal. It is a verification aid, not caller authentication, complaint registration or a promise against fraud.

The Department of Telecommunications, or DoT, added the module to Sanchar Saathi in 2025. The current live page is headed Trusted Contact Details and is framed around banks and financial institutions. Its result table can show the institution name, website, email ID, official number, toll-free number, WhatsApp number and other customer-care number where those fields are available.

Go directly to Sanchar Saathi Trusted Contact Details. Check that the address bar ends in sancharsaathi.gov.in. Do not open a lookalike link supplied by the caller.

The directory is a preventive service. It does not identify the person using a line, decide whether an offence occurred, or replace a complaint to the bank or police.

The Telecommunications Act, 2023, section 22(1) authorises cyber-security rules. DoT's official portal says Telecommunications (Telecom Cyber Security) Rules, 2024, rule 4 prohibits misuse of telecom equipment, identifiers, networks or services through fraud, cheating, personation or fraudulent messages.

Dishonest use of another person's password or unique identification feature may engage Information Technology Act, 2000, section 66C. Cheating by personation through a communication device or computer resource is addressed by section 66D. Investigators and courts apply these provisions. A directory result establishes neither offence.

The Supreme Court recognised privacy as a fundamental right in Justice K.S. Puttaswamy (Retd.) v Union of India, (2017) 10 SCC 1. Verification is never a reason to disclose an account number, card data, PIN, password, OTP, CVV, UPI PIN or KYC document to an incoming caller.

The live portal offers four search tabs. Choose the mode that matches what you received.

1. Pause and record. End a pressuring call or chat. Note the claimed institution, full number, email address or visible domain without opening links, files or QR codes.
2. Type the government address yourself. Open Trusted Contact Details in a clean tab and check sancharsaathi.gov.in.
3. Choose the matching tab. Use Name, Website, Email or Contact Number. Never enter an account, card, UPI or personal identity number.
4. Compare the correct field. Match the institution and contact channel. Select View Details where available. A partial resemblance is not a match.
5. Reconnect independently. End the incoming contact, then call a listed number, type the displayed domain, use the official app already installed, or visit a branch. Ask about the stated purpose without revealing an OTP, PIN, password, CVV, UPI PIN or remote-access code.
6. Report through the right route. With no monetary loss, use Chakshu for a suspicious call, SMS or WhatsApp message. If money moved, contact the bank, call 1930, and report at cybercrime.gov.in.

No banking login should be required. Keep only non-secret details ready:

• the claimed bank or financial-institution name;
• the full displayed telephone number;
• the sender's complete email address, including the domain;
• the visible website or domain, without opening a suspicious link;
• the communication's date, time and medium;
• a screenshot with unrelated private information masked.

Never paste an account number, card number, Aadhaar number, password, PIN, CVV, OTP or UPI PIN into a directory field.

Use more than one independent signal when money, credentials or account access is involved.

• Hang up and call afresh. Do not accept a transfer to a supposed supervisor.
• Type the domain yourself and use RBI's .bank.in website checks where relevant.
• Never install a support or screen-sharing app sent during the conversation, and never share a password, PIN, OTP, CVV or UPI PIN.
• If the event also suggests unknown SIMs or identity misuse, run the TAFCOP SIM-misuse check.

• Trusting caller ID. DoT has documented manipulated displayed identities. IT Act §66D may apply to personation, but the number on screen does not prove who is speaking.
• Sharing an OTP after a match. A result never cancels RBI's safety rule. Misuse of a password or unique identification feature may engage IT Act §66C.
• Calling the number in the suspicious message. You remain inside the sender's chosen channel. Reconnect through an independently displayed contact.
• Treating no result as a verdict. Absence is not proof of fraud. Preserve the evidence and use the proper route.
• Using RTI for an emergency or another person's data. RTI Act §7(1) is not a fraud-response route. Seek process records or your own grievance trail, allowing severance under §10.

This does not make every unfamiliar call fraudulent. It shows why a directory result must be combined with a safe callback.

First send a dated grievance through the official Sanchar Saathi contact or feedback route. Record the tab, searched value, result, date and time, without including credentials or another person's data.

RTI is a later records route, not a correction button. Ask DoT for existing records about your grievance, the maintenance procedure, or recorded action. RTI reaches records held by or accessible to a public authority; it does not automatically make every private bank answerable.

Format a focused request with the AI RTI Drafter. For a missing or inadequate reply, use the First Appeal Builder under RTI Act §19(1). Read the RTI Act, 2005 before filing.

To: The Central Public Information Officer
Department of Telecommunications

Subject: Records concerning Trusted Contact Details grievance [reference ID]

Under section 6(1) of the Right to Information Act, 2005, please provide:

1. A copy of the action-taken note and closure decision recorded on grievance [ID].
2. The current procedure or instruction for requests to correct institutional contact details.
3. The date-wise movement and present status of my grievance.
4. The responsible office's name and designation.

If another public authority holds any requested record, please transfer that part under section 6(3). If an exempt portion is mixed with a disclosable record, provide the severable portion under section 10. Please send the response within the period under section 7(1).

Pause, search one of the four modes, reconnect independently, and keep secrets private. Use Chakshu for a suspicious communication without loss; use the bank, 1930 and cybercrime.gov.in if money moved.

Yes. It is hosted on DoT's sancharsaathi.gov.in domain. RTI Wiki is independent and does not operate it.

They are Search by Name, Search by Website, Search by Email, and Search by Contact Number. The page is framed for banks and financial institutions.

No. It only shows that the number appears in an institutional record. End the incoming call and start a fresh one through the displayed channel.

No. Stop and verify through another field, the official app or typed website, a recent statement, or a branch. Report it if it remains suspicious.

No. Use only the institution name, website, email ID or contact number. Never enter a financial, identity or authentication secret.

Use Chakshu for a suspected fraud call, SMS or WhatsApp communication without loss. If money moved, contact the bank, call 1930 and report at cybercrime.gov.in.

No. It is a preventive directory, not a recovery or dispute service. No channel can promise recovery.

RTI can seek existing records from DoT or another applicable public authority. It is not an emergency correction mechanism and does not automatically apply to every private bank.

• DoT Sanchar Saathi: Trusted Contact Details
• PIB and DoT: Year End Review 2025, including the Trusted Contact Details module
• DoT: Telecom Cyber Security portal and Rule 4 summary
• India Code: Telecommunications Act, 2023
• India Code: Information Technology Act, 2000
• RBI: public awareness against payment frauds
• I4C and MHA: National Cyber Crime Reporting Portal and 1930
• Supreme Court: Justice K.S. Puttaswamy (Retd.) v Union of India, 24 August 2017
• India Code: Right to Information Act, 2005

• Report a fraud call, SMS or WhatsApp on Chakshu
• Choose between Chakshu, 1930 and the spam route
• Recognise and stop a fake customer-care number scam
• Use the seven-minute 1930 cyber-fraud script
• Check whether a claimed bank website is genuine
• Understand the Financial Fraud Risk Indicator
• Check SIM misuse through TAFCOP
• What to do when a bank refuses a cyber-fraud refund claim

Last reviewed: 12 August 2026 | Source check: official DoT, Sanchar Saathi, PIB, RBI, I4C, India Code and Supreme Court records