The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has finally implemented the Message Traceability regulations in India after a significant delay. These new rules aim to help users get a reduced number of spam messages and calls. However, these regulations were earlier bound to be implemented on November 1 but faced delays due to requests from telecom operators for further operations.
As the name suggests, the new regulations will help the authorities trace the sender of any commercial message, curbing the fraudulent messages from reaching the receiver’s phone. For instance, if a message is sent by a scammer, it will be blocked from being delivered, reducing the risk of getting duped. The regulations clearly state that telecom companies must know the complete path of every message from origin to delivery.
Undefined or mismatched telemarketing calls that are not part of the pre-defined chain will be rejected. To put it another way, users will not receive any messages whose origin cannot be traced. Since it will now be easier to track down the scammers, this will assist the authorities in limiting OTP message fraud.
TRAI, previously, implemented rules to stop unmeaningful communication. In simpler terms, messages from unverified sources containing suspicious links will be blocked. It is clear that the authorities want to control the rising number of cybercrimes and frauds happening to users. The reports suggest that there has been a massive 3,000 percent increase in such cases.
Another thing which is worth mentioning is about banking and Aadhar OTP delays. TRAI has clearly stated that the users will not face any OTP delays, specifically when they are making any bank payments or Aadhar related updates. The authority clarified that it was a misunderstanding.
In order to continue the telemarketing messages, over 27,000 companies had registered with the telecom operators to comply with the new rules.