New Delhi, Oct. 20 -- As one-time passwords (OTPs) become a routine part of online banking and shopping, the different formats in which these messages arrive can make it harder for users to distinguish genuine alerts from scams. The telecom regulator is now looking to standardize OTP messages across banks, online platforms and other companies to make them easier to recognize and harder for fraudsters to imitate, two people aware of the discussions said. Experts, however, see only limited effectiveness.

"The proposal to standardize OTP SMS templates has been discussed with telecom operators in a few meetings. Trai (The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India) is also expected to come up with a consultation paper on the same," said one of th...