Centre to form panel to check rising internet, WhatsApp-based spam calls

The proposal to set up the panel was made in an inter-ministerial meeting on the issue chaired by Consumer Affairs Secretary Rohit Kumar Singh on Thursday, the Consumers Affairs Department said

The Centre is looking at creating a new panel for curbing spam calls and draft guidelines, especially for phone calls made over the internet and WhatsApp, amid rising pesky, promotional, or unsolicited calls received by consumers. A proposal to set up the panel was made at an inter-ministerial meeting chaired by Consumer Affairs Secretary Rohit Kumar Singh on Thursday, the Consumers Affairs Department said in a post on X.

Alongside the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) and Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai), the meeting was also attended by three private sector telcos - Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea.

 

"The Consumer Affairs Department had been keen on understanding the steps being taken to reduce spam calls. They also communicated to us that they continue to receive many complaints on spam calls," DoT officials said.

Spam is classified as “unsolicited commercial communication” (UCCS), usually sent by unregistered telemarketers (UTMs). A unified platform to seek, maintain and revoke the consent given by customers towards receiving commercial communication from businesses, the new Digital Content Authorization (DCA) was mandated by Trai last year, to rein in exponentially rising cases of spam and excessive tele-calling in the country.

The sector regulator has asked telecommunications companies to quickly onboard Principal Entities (PEs) such as banks, financial institutions, insurance companies, trading companies, business entities, and real estate companies, among others, into the new system to curb spam calls. But telecom companies say sluggish response from businesses, and operational challenges are slowing the process down.

In the prevalent system, customer consent is obtained and maintained by the PEs. Telecom officials said PEs need to agree to the new norms.

"The government guidelines have come months back, and we have also intimated the PEs. Most are now completing the onboard process," a telco official said.

Phishing attacks through the internet or WhatsApp calls have also emerged as a major headache for the government. The telecommunications companies had earlier told the government that anti-phishing solutions need to especially work on over-the-top (OTT) services such as WhatsApp, given that traditional commercial SMS traffic is increasingly moving to IP or internet protocol messaging. For instance, more companies are switching to WhatsApp's enterprise platform due to cost savings.

On a related note, the DoT has already blocked more than 66,000 fraudulent WhatsApp accounts.