Truecaller Challenges TRAI Over Anti-Spam Rules
Truecaller has criticised TRAI's anti-spam framework, claiming restrictions on caller ID apps have made it easier for scammers to misuse protected number series.
SociapaHQ
Truecaller has publicly accused the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) of using its anti-spam framework in a manner that facilitates the exploitation of protected number series by scammers, rather than mitigating unwanted calls.
The spat escalated after Truecaller Chief Executive Rishit Jhunjhunwala slammed TRAI’s policy in a post on X, saying the restrictions imposed on third-party caller identification apps have prevented platforms from warning users about spam from officially designated commercial and service number ranges.
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Dispute Over Protected Number Series:
The dispute is over TRAI’s numbering framework introduced in 2024.
The rules allow only promotional telemarketing calls to use the 1400 series, and the 1600 series is set aside for important transactional and service messages, such as banking alerts.
So for this string of numbers, TRAI asked the caller identification apps to disable the community-reported spam tag to avoid mislabeling actual companies.
But Truecaller says the policy has opened an unintended loophole for fraudsters.
Currently, Truecaller users are blocking some 4 lakh calls from the 1400 series and over 1.2 lakh calls from the 1600 series, Jhunjhunwala said. Because the platform is required to suppress crowdsourced spam warnings for those numbers, scammers can operate within the protected ranges without setting off the alerts users typically rely on, he said.
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Debate Over Regulation:
The criticism comes as TRAI is pushing for greater regulatory oversight of independent caller identification platforms such as Truecaller, Hiya and Whoscall.
These services are not covered by the licensing regime of the Department of Telecommunications at present as these are software applications and not licensed telecom service providers.
Jhunjhunwala rejected calls for a separate regulatory regime for caller ID apps, saying independent, crowdsourced data is key to identifying emerging spam and scam activity.
The regulator added that third-party caller ID platforms should not override official government numbering classifications or interfere with legitimate communications sent through authorised commercial and service number series.
