How a recycled number can ruin your peace of mind!

Megha (name changed) recently got a new mobile connection, but as soon as she activated her new SIM, she suddenly started receiving many calls from a recovery agent for recovery of her loan amount.

But Megha had not taken any loan, and yet she received such calls multiple times.

There was another problem. Since Megha used UPI, she tried to link her new number to UPI, but to no success.

Eventually, she found that her number had already been linked to someone else’s UPI account.

Megha is not the only one facing these issues. In fact, the number Megha got is actually a recycled number.

According to reports, telecom companies are releasing 1 crore such SIM cards and numbers into the market every month.

These are numbers that were previously used by someone else, but which were disconnected due to not non-payment of bills/recharged or the users syrrendered them.

As per norms, telecom companies can disconnect a connection if the user has not used it for 6 months or has not recharged it during the period.

And since the demand for mobile numbers is consistently increasing, but telecom companies have limited resources, most of them resort to giving out recycled numbers.

According to reports, many people who have taken digital loans deliberately get their numbers disconnected, so that loan recovery agents are unable to contact them later on.

This especially affects those who get recycled numbers, as they are repeatedly contacted by recovery agents.

Due to recycled numbers, people face issues in updating their new numbers on bank accounts, opening new accounts, signing up on e-commerce sites and other such basic tasks.

Now the question is,  what should Megha do? How can her problems be resolved? Let’s discuss.

For this, Megha should contact banks and other agencies and ask them to delete or disconnect the previous user’s details. If an account has been created on any digital loan app or e-commerce site using that number, ask them to de-register that number from their database.

One more important thing, whenever you go to get a SIM, request the telecom company representative to provide you with a completely new number.

Most people don’t make such requests and take whichever number is being given to them.

If brand new SIMs and numbers are available, they can give it to you on request.

Additionally, if you are getting a number disconnected yourself, ensure you deregister all online accounts linked to that number. This will not only save the new user from hassles but will also ensure your data safety.