Center installs panel to monitor threat of bothersome calls

A committee has been established by the Center to handle bothersome calls that violate users’ rights to privacy.

The Department of Consumer Affairs (DoCA) established the committee, which consists of representatives from several regulatory bodies, telemarketing firms, and the cellular sector, to create the recommendations.

The majority of these calls are from the financial services industry, with real estate coming in second. This was noted at a meeting called by DoCA secretary Rohit Kumar Singh on Tuesday.

Additionally, it was noted that spammers are increasingly using internet calls—particularly WhatsApp—to trick victims into investing in cryptocurrency and ponzi schemes or into accepting employment offers.

According to Singh, “it was observed that these calls violate both the consumers’ rights and the privacy of users.”

The Department of Telecom, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, the Cellular Operators Association of India, BSNL, Vodafone, Airtel, and Reliance were among the organizations represented at the conference.

In order for customers to recognize the caller, the government had previously urged businesses to prefix their phone number with the 140 number series. Subscribers now have more discretion over the calls and messages they receive. Numerous unregistered telemarketers disregard these rules. The discussion underscored the need of telemarketers adhering strictly to these enabling regulations, as stated by Singh.

The DoT and TRAI have already taken steps to address the problem of spam messages and bothersome calls from registered telemarketers.