73% People Still Getting Spam Messages, Calls Despite Opting TRAI's DND

Despite opting for TRAI's DND services, 74 percent of people are still getting spam messages and calls, a new survey conducted by Local Circles said. Notably, the Do Not Disturb (DND) is designed to help users with spam messages and calls.

TRAI Rules For Spam Messages And Calls

The survey was conducted on more than 35,000 citizens in 324 districts. In fact, the survey highlighted that 73 percent of users are getting more than four messages every day. The regulation related to pesky calls and messages has been managed by the Telecom Regulatory of India. In fact, TRAI has suggested penalizing pesky callers up to Rs. 10,000 per violation.

"Despite being registered on the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India's (Trai) 'Do Not Disturb' list, 74 percent of citizens at the time said they still get unwanted SMS," the survey said.

DoT Suggests Fine On Fraudulent Message Senders

The survey comes soon after the Department of Telecommunication also suggested a fine on senders who are sending fraud messages to users. In addition, the ministry is planning to disconnect the connection of those companies of those senders. As per the ministry, any sender who is sending messages with the wrong header will be fined.

"The platform will also provide DoT, Law Enforcement Agencies (LEAs), Financial Institutions (Fis) and TSPs (telecom service providers) to seamlessly coordinate in cases of financial frauds committed through misuse of telecom resources," DoT said in the notice.

Additionally, the ministry is planning to suspend the IDs along with mobile numbers permanently. The ministry also noted that it will create separate units to control fraud. The ministry will set up a telecom analytics and data intelligence unit.

These agencies are expected to coordinate with all ministries so that they can control frauds related to telecom services, including SIM and mobile number portability.

It seems that frauds have come up with new ways to cheat people via telecom services despite TRAI and DoT are so active. However, we believe that the new agencies suggested by DoT are likely to help customers from such senders. Besides, we expect that new agencies might impose heavy penalties on those senders.