Lok Sabha Question No. 1536 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2024-07-31
Subject: Fake Calls
Ministry: COMMUNICATION
Asked by: Shri Vijayakumar Alias Vijay Vasanth, Shri Maddila Gurumoorthy

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF COMMUNICATIONS DEPARTMENT OF TELECOMMUNICATIONS

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 1536 TO BE ANSWERED ON 31 ST  JULY, 2024

## FAKE CALLS

## 1536   SHRI VIJAYAKUMAR ALIAS VIJAY VASANTH: SHRI MADDILA GURUMOORTHY:

Will the Minister of COMMUNICATION be pleased to state:

- (a) the status of 'Do Not Call Registry';

(b) whether  the  Government  has  taken  note  of  incidents  of  telemarketing  companies  calling customers from the personal phones of their employees thereby making it difficult for the customers to know the whereabouts of the call;

(c) if so, the details thereof and the reaction of the Government thereto along with the remedial steps taken/being taken by the Government in this regard;

(d) whether the Government is taking appropriate measures to bring down the spam call rates in the country considering as it was fourth worst hit country in terms of spam calls in the year 2021; and

- (e) if so, the details thereof and if not, the reasons therefor?

## ANSWER

## MINISTER OF STATE FOR COMMUNICATIONS AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT (DR. PEMMASANI CHANDRA SEKHAR)

(a) Telecom Commercial Communications Customer Preference Regulations, 2018 (TCCCPR2018) issued by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) to curb Unsolicited Commercial Communications (UCC), enable the telecom subscribers for registering preferences for receiving commercial communications in the Preference Register popularly known as 'Do Not Call Registry'. A telecom  subscriber  can  opt  to  block  all  commercial  communications  or  can  selectively  block commercial communications as per preference categories. Registration of the preferences can be done through various modes such as mobile apps, sending SMS to 1909 or calling on 1909. Access service providers (telecom operators) are required to make this facility available for the customers to register their preferences on 24 hours x 7 days basis. At present, about 22 crore subscribers have registered their preferences.

(b) & (c) A  separate  140xxx  series  is  allocated  to  Telemarketers  (TMs)  for  making commercial calls which enables subscribers to know about the incoming commercial calls and take decision whether to respond or not to such calls. However, large number of instances have been noted about the use of 10-digit numbers in place of 140xxx for making commercial calls by the unregistered telemarketers (UTMs). Access service providers are required to act against the UTMs including  giving  warning,  putting  them  under  usage  cap  or  disconnecting  in  case  of  repeated violations.

The count of complaints and action taken against UTMs from January 2021 to December 2023 are as under:

| Period            | No. of complaints against UTMs   | Imposed Usage Cap* during investigation of complaints   | Issued warning notices for first instance of violation   | Imposed usage caps for 6 months for second instance of violation   | Disconnected connections for violating regulations for third time   |
|-------------------|----------------------------------|---------------------------------------------------------|----------------------------------------------------------|--------------------------------------------------------------------|---------------------------------------------------------------------|
| Jan-21 to Dec- 21 | 8,55,771                         | 2,21,690                                                | 3,46,429                                                 | 54,865                                                             | 15,382                                                              |
| Jan-22 to Dec- 22 | 9,04,359                         | 2,58,041                                                | 4,09,739                                                 | 7,72,13                                                            | 32,032                                                              |
| Jan-23 to Dec- 23 | 12,22,946                        | 2,56,220                                                | 3,99,274                                                 | 57,565                                                             | 27,043                                                              |

(d) & (e) Various measures which have been taken to control unsolicited voice calls and details of reduction in customer complaints against registered TMs are as under:

- i. On  the  recommendations  of  TRAI,  a  separate  numbering  series  160xxx  series  has  been allocated by the Department of Telecommunications for service and transactional voice calls for the banks and other entities.
- ii. TRAI  has  issued  direction  on  13 th June  2023  to  all Access  Service  Providers  to  deploy artificial intelligence and machine learning based system to detect UTMs involved in sending UCC.
- iii. TRAI  has  sent  important  aspects  of  TCCCPR-2018  to  sensitize  the  senders  about  the regulatory requirements before making commercial communications through voice calls or SMS  to  Reserve  Bank  of  India  (RBI),  Securities  and  Exchange  Board  of  India  (SEBI), Insurance  Regulatory  and  Development  Authority  of  India  (IRDAI),  Department  of Consumer  Affairs  (DoCA),  Department  of  Financial  Services  (DFS),  Department  of Economic  Affairs  (DEA)  with  a  request  to  direct  all  entities  /  institutions  under  their respective jurisdiction. Further, through the Access Service Providers, these guidelines were shared with all the senders.
- iv. Details of reduction of customer complaints against registered TMs:

| Period               | Complaints received by Access Service Providers against registered TMs   |
|----------------------|--------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| Jan-2021 to Dec-2021 | 4,28,290                                                                 |
| Jan-2022 to Dec-2022 | 1,78,690                                                                 |
| Jan 2023 to Dec 2023 | 1,39,886                                                                 |

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