This techie's app gives you a 'Doosra' mobile number to bowl spammers out

The app a dummy, virtual mobile number you can use instead of your original, to fend off spammers and telemarketers, thereby reducing the risks of getting defrauded as well

Here is a start-up that came into existence as a result of a few not-so-pleasant personal experiences that its young founder had. 

Fifteen years ago, then 25-year-old Aditya Vuchi and his four other roommates in the US would always give their landline number to check-out agents at movie rental company Blockbuster, Safeway or Pizza Hut. This was because all their purchases were bundled into a single account and the reward points would accumulate faster. Secondly, it was a landline number and no one could never really bother them with calls or messages on their mobile phones.

Fast forward to a Sunday morning, late 2019. Vuchi went shopping for some accessories at a large global sporting retail chain. At checkout, he was told it was mandatory for him to share his phone number to complete the transaction. The incident got him thinking about all the other instances where he had to share his phone number.

Whether it was for e-commerce shopping, checking listings on a property portal, car dealerships or even at the odd social occasion, like a networking event or a reunion, he was compelled to share his number. 

"From being a valuable customer resource management (CRM) tool in the early 2000s, taking mobile numbers of customers has become a mandatory marketing tool for companies," said Vuchi. "Over the last few years, a few start-ups' databases have got hacked and all the numbers and card information have been sold on the dark web."

This triggered the idea of the Doosra app. It is a dummy, virtual mobile number that can be quoted instead of your original number to keep spammers and telemarketers at bay. It ensures that the mobile numbers for personal and public identity are different, thereby reducing the menace of spammers and risks of getting defrauded.

The Hyderabad-based start-up has tied up with mobile operators to roll out the virtual number. The Android and iOS-supported app blacklists all calls and messages unless manually marked otherwise. The app also extends free voicemail services so that the customers do not miss out on important calls. The number does not have an outgoing feature but has a secured callback option. It has also worked with start-ups such as Swiggy, Zomato, Urban Company and Dunzo to make sure incoming calls from their systems do not get blacklisted.

Launched in September, the start-up is seeing 30 per cent growth week-on-week in terms of number calls recorded on their customers' Doosra number. The app has already reached over 10,000 downloads. “Doosra will be an effective solution for deflecting spam calls and women will especially benefit from it,” said K T Rama Rao, Telangana IT and industries minister who launched the app, adding that he also has been a victim of spamming in the past.

Doosra is Vuchi's third stint at entrepreneurship. The West Virginia University alumnus is also the co-founder and CEO of marketing and advertising start-up MediaMint. It was in partnerships with large content publishers and ad networks to offer media planning and services to companies in order to run their run successful online campaigns.

In July 2013, Vuchi founded Zippr and led the product development to solve the challenge of inaccurate addresses in the country. It is a full-stack addressing platform that helps various state governments and municipalities, using machine learning. It gives 'Aadhaar-like' digital door numbers for houses for the efficient public distribution system, maintenance of land records or even garbage collection. It has already been implemented in over 120 Indian cities.