TRAI tightens grip on telemarketers to combat fraudulent messages

In a significant step to protect consumers from fraudulent practices, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has intensified its efforts to curb the misuse of messaging services by telemarketers.

TRAI announced on Tuesday that from September 1, 2024, all telecom service providers will be prohibited from transmitting messages containing URLs, OTT links, or callback numbers that are not authorized.

In other words, if these numbers are not whitelisted by the senders, they will be prohibited from transmitting messages.

To enhance transparency and traceability, TRAI has also mandated that, starting November 1, 2024, the trail of all messages sent from marketers to recipients must be traceable.

Any message lacking a clearly defined or mismatched telemarketer chain will be automatically rejected.

These measures are part of TRAI’s ongoing crackdown on unauthorized telemarketers who inundate telecom subscribers with unsolicited promotional calls and messages.

Last week, TRAI directed telecom operators to disconnect all resources of unregistered telemarketers found making spam calls and to blacklist them for up to two years.

The latest directive takes this a step further, with TRAI issuing specific guidelines to enforce stricter controls on messaging services.

TRAI has ordered access service providers to transition all telemarketing calls, beginning with those using the 140 series, to an online Distributed Ledger Technology platform by September 30, 2024. This migration is aimed at better monitoring and control of telemarketing activities.

Headers, which are assigned to business entities for sending commercial communications, must now be properly used to identify the sender.

Any misuse of these headers or content templates will lead to the immediate suspension of the sender’s messaging traffic until proper verification is completed.

If a telemarketer’s content or headers are misused, they must identify and report the responsible entities within two business days or face similar penalties.

TRAI’s latest measures are designed to ensure a secure messaging ecosystem. Besides, these are also intended to safeguard consumer interests and prevent fraudulent activities in the telecom sector.

Image from Pxhere (Free for commercial use / CC0 Public Domain)

Image Published on March 04, 2017

Image Reference: https://pxhere.com/en/photo/968758