Latest news with #TSPs
Economic Times
3 days ago
- Business
- Economic Times
No more spam calls from banks for loans, credit cards: TRAI, RBI join forces to provide relief to customers
ET Online TRAI The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) and the Reserve Bank of India have joined hands to implement measures aimed at reducing unwanted spam calls and messages related to loans and credit cards. A lot of people have expressed their dissatisfaction about receiving spam calls from companies with which they previously made purchases. However, these companies often claim that they have the consumer's permission to send these communications. In an effort to curb the prevalence of spam calls, TRAI has launched a pilot project focused on digital consent management, collaborating with RBI and certain banks. On June 13, 2025, TRAI directed all telecom service providers (TSPs) to engage in this pilot project with banks. In a release dated June 16, the Ministry of Communications highlighted that the banking sector will be the initial focus due to the sensitivity of financial transactions and the associated risk of fraud stemming from spam calls. "Given the sensitivity of banking transactions and cases of financial fraud through spam calls, the banking sector has been prioritised for the first phase of implementation. This pilot, running under a regulatory sandbox framework, will validate the operational, technical, and regulatory aspects of the enhanced consent registration function (CRF) and lay the foundation for sector-wise scaling of the digital consent ecosystem," the ministry said. Consent from customers The new regulations require companies to get consent digitally and register it in a secure system managed by telecom service providers (TSPs). This system will allow easy verification of consent before any commercial communication is sent. "However, for successful operation of this consent registration framework, onboarding of entities sending commercial communications is a necessary requirement," TRAI stated. SBI will call you from these numbers: Check the numbers to avoid cyber frauds Measures taken by TRAI In recent years, TRAI has introduced measures like allowing consumers to complain about unregistered telemarketers, even if they haven't registered for Do Not Disturb (DND), to curb spam calls. The telecom regulator has also disconnected telecom resources misused for spam. However, verifying if a consumer truly gave consent for commercial communication, especially offline, remains January, RBI asked banks to use only the '1600xx' phone numbering series to call customers for transactional purposes with a view to preventing financial fraud. It further said that for promotional purposes, banks and other regulated entities (REs) should use only the '140xx' numbering series for the prevention of financial fraud perpetrated using voice calls and SMS. State Bank of India (SBI), the country's largest lender, in June issued a public advisory regarding the authenticity of calls originating from numbers beginning with +91-1600, aiming to strengthen consumer safety in the digital banking ecosystem. The bank has made clear that consumers can safely interact with these numbers without worrying about fraud; these numbers are used only for transactional and service-related calls. N.R. Narayana Murthy Founder, Infosys Watch Now Harsh Mariwala Chairman & Founder, Marico Watch Now Adar Poonawalla CEO, Serum Institute of India Watch Now Ronnie Screwvala Chairperson & Co-founder, upGrad Watch Now Puneet Dalmia Managing Director, Dalmia Bharat group Watch Now Martin Schwenk Former President & CEO, Mercedes-Benz, Thailand Watch Now Nadir Godrej Managing Director, of Godrej Industries Watch Now Manu Jain Former- Global Vice President, Xiaomi Watch Now Nithin Kamath Founder, CEO, Zerodha Watch Now Anil Agarwal Executive Chairman, Vedanta Resources Watch Now Dr. Prathap C. Reddy Founder Chairman, Apollo Hospitals Watch Now Vikram Kirloskar Former Vice Chairman, Toyota Kirloskar Motor Watch Now Kiran Mazumdar Shaw Executive Chairperson, Biocon Limited Watch Now Shashi Kiran Shetty Chairman of Allcargo Logistics, ECU Worldwide and Gati Ltd Watch Now Samir K Modi Managing Director, Modi Enterprises Watch Now R Gopalakrishnan Former Director Tata Sons, Former Vice Chairman, HUL Watch Now Sanjiv Mehta Former Chairman / CEO, Hindustan Unilever Watch Now Dr Ajai Chowdhry Co-Founder, HCL, Chairman EPIC Foundation, Author, Just Aspire Watch Now Shiv Khera Author, Business Consultant, Motivational Speaker Watch Now Nakul Anand Executive Director, ITC Limited Watch Now RS Sodhi Former MD, Amul & President, Indian Dairy Association Watch Now Anil Rai Gupta Managing Director & Chairman, Havells Watch Now Zia Mody Co-Founder & Managing Partner, AZB & Partners Watch Now Arundhati Bhattacharya Chairperson & CEO, Salesforce India Watch Now
Time of India
3 days ago
- Business
- Time of India
No more spam calls from banks for loans, credit cards: TRAI, RBI join forces to provide relief to customers
Academy Empower your mind, elevate your skills The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) and the Reserve Bank of India have joined hands to implement measures aimed at reducing unwanted spam calls and messages related to loans and credit cards. A lot of people have expressed their dissatisfaction about receiving spam calls from companies with which they previously made purchases. However, these companies often claim that they have the consumer's permission to send these an effort to curb the prevalence of spam calls, TRAI has launched a pilot project focused on digital consent management , collaborating with RBI and certain banks. On June 13, 2025, TRAI directed all telecom service providers (TSPs) to engage in this pilot project with a release dated June 16, the Ministry of Communications highlighted that the banking sector will be the initial focus due to the sensitivity of financial transactions and the associated risk of fraud stemming from spam calls. "Given the sensitivity of banking transactions and cases of financial fraud through spam calls, the banking sector has been prioritised for the first phase of implementation. This pilot, running under a regulatory sandbox framework, will validate the operational, technical, and regulatory aspects of the enhanced consent registration function (CRF) and lay the foundation for sector-wise scaling of the digital consent ecosystem," the ministry new regulations require companies to get consent digitally and register it in a secure system managed by telecom service providers (TSPs). This system will allow easy verification of consent before any commercial communication is sent. "However, for successful operation of this consent registration framework, onboarding of entities sending commercial communications is a necessary requirement," TRAI recent years, TRAI has introduced measures like allowing consumers to complain about unregistered telemarketers, even if they haven't registered for Do Not Disturb (DND), to curb spam calls. The telecom regulator has also disconnected telecom resources misused for spam. However, verifying if a consumer truly gave consent for commercial communication, especially offline, remains January, RBI asked banks to use only the '1600xx' phone numbering series to call customers for transactional purposes with a view to preventing financial fraud. It further said that for promotional purposes, banks and other regulated entities (REs) should use only the '140xx' numbering series for the prevention of financial fraud perpetrated using voice calls and SMS. State Bank of India (SBI), the country's largest lender, in June issued a public advisory regarding the authenticity of calls originating from numbers beginning with +91-1600, aiming to strengthen consumer safety in the digital banking ecosystem. The bank has made clear that consumers can safely interact with these numbers without worrying about fraud; these numbers are used only for transactional and service-related calls.
India.com
26-05-2025
- Business
- India.com
Sunil Mittal's Airtel's BIG call to Mukesh Ambani's Jio, Vodafone Idea, BSNL to fight with…, may save Rs 110000000000 lost in…
Airtel has notified the government and telecom regulator TRAI about its proposal to collaborate with Reliance Jio and Vodafone Idea on a joint initiative to combat the increasing telecom fraud and scams. The company has called for a united industry effort to face the rising number of malicious scams that target vulnerable individuals. In separate letters to the telecom operators, Airtel highlighted data that shows India registered over 1.7 million cybercrime complaints in the first nine months of 2024 which resulted in financial losses of around Rs 11,000 crore. The call for action comes at a time when cybercriminals are using increasingly sophisticated tactics like phishing links, fake loan offers, and fraudulent payment pages, leading to a surge in digital fraud and identity theft incidents. Airtel has upped the ante on the war on digital spams and scams, and the last few weeks have seen the Sunil Mittal-led telco rolling out fraud detection solution to block rogue sites across communication OTT apps, and platforms, including WhatsApp, Telegram, Facebook, Instagram and others. 'However, given the recent alarming rise in phishing attempts and malicious URL-based scams targeting unsuspecting individuals, it became evident that more coordinated industry action was needed. These sophisticated fraud schemes often exploit the gaps in coordination between service providers,' Airtel wrote in letters to Telecom Secretary Neeraj Mittal and Trai Chairman Anil Kumar Lahoti. Updating the telecom department and Trai on its efforts, Airtel said that to combat 'this growing threat' of telecom frauds, spams and scams and in the spirit of unified industry action, it has once again reached out to TSPs with a proposal to launch a Joint Telecom Fraud Initiative on May 14, 2025. 'This initiative would bring together all TSPs to collaboratively detect, prevent, and mitigate telecom fraud and scams across our networks through real-time fraud intelligence sharing and cross-network coordination,' Airtel said in the letters. Airtel recalled that in October of 2024, it had written to all Telecom Service providers (TSPs) with a proposal to adopt a collaborative approach to address the growing issue of Unsolicited Commercial Communications (UCC). The proposal emphasised the mutual sharing of details of corporate connections used for commercial calling in a standardised format to enable proactive spam monitoring and mitigate any potential misuse. 'We also proposed the establishment of a centralised data-sharing platform akin to the existing Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) system to enhance our collective ability to combat UCC without disrupting legitimate enterprise services,' Airtel said. Meanwhile, Airtel Vice Chairman and MD Gopal Vittal will soon reach out to customers on the issue of financial frauds and scams that have 'become a regular threat for Indians'. Sources said the proposed mailer outreach by the top executive to customers will outline the various initiatives by Airtel, including an AI-powered solution launched last year to identify and mark suspicious spam calls and SMSes, and will also highlight new fraud detection solutions that will check for suspicious links across all Over the Top (OTT) apps and platforms, including social media apps, chat apps and messaging services and block it in real-time. Vittal will caution customers that over the last year, scam attempts have evolved into something much more organised and dangerous. 'Fraudsters today are targeting people not just through calls and texts but also through chats, emails, social media apps and other platforms,' he said. Fraudsters send messages that sound urgent or worrying, pretending to be from a bank, electricity provider, or even a delivery company, just to get users to click on a link. 'And these links look absolutely genuine, almost impossible to tell apart from the real ones. Once you click, they extract your personal and financial information and use it to scam you. We are seeing an alarming surge in such threats in the last few days,' he added. Talking about the new solution, Vittal assures customers that whenever they are on the Airtel mobile network or connected to Airtel Wi-Fi, this added layer of protection will be active by default. (With Inputs PTI)
Time of India
26-05-2025
- Business
- Time of India
Airtel approaches Reliance Jio, Vodafone Idea on joint telecom initiative against fraud
New Delhi: Airtel has informed the government and regulator Trai that it has approached Reliance Jio and Vodafone Idea with a proposal for a joint initiative to unite the industry against rising telecom fraud and scams. Airtel has also urged all telcos to collaborate and collectively address the growing threat of deceptive and malicious scams targeting vulnerable individuals. In separate letters to the telcos, it cited data that India recorded over 1.7 million cybercrime complaints in the first nine months of 2024, resulting in financial losses exceeding ₹11,000 crore. The call for action comes at a time when cybercriminals are using increasingly sophisticated tactics like phishing links, fake loan offers, and fraudulent payment pages, leading to a surge in digital fraud and identity theft incidents. Airtel has upped the ante on the war on digital spams and scams, and the last few weeks have seen the Sunil Mittal-led telco rolling out fraud detection solution to block rogue sites across communication OTT apps, and platforms, including WhatsApp, Telegram, Facebook, Instagram and others. "However, given the recent alarming rise in phishing attempts and malicious URL-based scams targeting unsuspecting individuals, it became evident that more coordinated industry action was needed. These sophisticated fraud schemes often exploit the gaps in coordination between service providers," Airtel wrote in letters to Telecom Secretary Neeraj Mittal and Trai Chairman Anil Kumar Lahoti. Updating the telecom department and Trai on its efforts, Airtel said that to combat "this growing threat" of telecom frauds, spams and scams and in the spirit of unified industry action, it has once again reached out to TSPs with a proposal to launch a Joint Telecom Fraud Initiative on May 14, 2025. "This initiative would bring together all TSPs to collaboratively detect, prevent, and mitigate telecom fraud and scams across our networks through real-time fraud intelligence sharing and cross-network coordination," Airtel said in the letters. Airtel recalled that in October of 2024, it had written to all Telecom Service providers (TSPs) with a proposal to adopt a collaborative approach to address the growing issue of Unsolicited Commercial Communications (UCC). The proposal emphasised the mutual sharing of details of corporate connections used for commercial calling in a standardised format to enable proactive spam monitoring and mitigate any potential misuse. "We also proposed the establishment of a centralised data-sharing platform akin to the existing Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) system to enhance our collective ability to combat UCC without disrupting legitimate enterprise services," Airtel said. Meanwhile, Airtel Vice Chairman and MD Gopal Vittal will soon reach out to customers on the issue of financial frauds and scams that have "become a regular threat for Indians". Sources said the proposed mailer outreach by the top executive to customers will outline the various initiatives by Airtel, including an AI-powered solution launched last year to identify and mark suspicious spam calls and SMSes, and will also highlight new fraud detection solutions that will check for suspicious links across all Over the Top (OTT) apps and platforms, including social media apps, chat apps and messaging services and block it in real-time. Vittal will caution customers that over the last year, scam attempts have evolved into something much more organised and dangerous. "Fraudsters today are targeting people not just through calls and texts but also through chats, emails, social media apps and other platforms," he said. Fraudsters send messages that sound urgent or worrying, pretending to be from a bank, electricity provider, or even a delivery company, just to get users to click on a link. "And these links look absolutely genuine, almost impossible to tell apart from the real ones. Once you click, they extract your personal and financial information and use it to scam you. We are seeing an alarming surge in such threats in the last few days," he added. Talking about the new solution, Vittal assures customers that whenever they are on the Airtel mobile network or connected to Airtel Wi-Fi, this added layer of protection will be active by default.
Time of India
25-05-2025
- Business
- Time of India
Airtel seeks industry-wide alliance with Jio, VIL to combat telecom scams
Bharti Airtel has reached out to Reliance Jio and Vodafone Idea (VIL) with a proposal for a joint industry initiative to combat the rising menace of telecom fraud and scams, the company has informed the government and the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai). In separate communications to the telecom firms, Airtel highlighted alarming data showing that India recorded over 1.7 million cybercrime complaints in the first nine months of 2024, with reported financial losses exceeding Rs 11,000 crore. Urging all telecom operators to collaborate, Airtel stressed the importance of unified industry efforts to protect vulnerable individuals from increasingly deceptive digital scams, PTI reported. The company has already implemented a fraud detection solution aimed at blocking rogue websites on communication and social media platforms such as WhatsApp, Telegram, Facebook, and Instagram. "However, given the recent alarming rise in phishing attempts and malicious URL-based scams targeting unsuspecting individuals, it became evident that more coordinated industry action was needed. These sophisticated fraud schemes often exploit the gaps in coordination between service providers," Airtel said in letters to Telecom Secretary Neeraj Mittal and Trai Chairman Anil Kumar Lahoti. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like Alerta: Você tem zumbido no ouvido? Dica de ouro pode aliviar! Zumbido no ouvido Undo Updating both the telecom department and Trai on its ongoing measures, Airtel said it has once again reached out to other Telecom Service Providers (TSPs) with a proposal to launch a Joint Telecom Fraud Initiative on May 14, 2025. "This initiative would bring together all TSPs to collaboratively detect, prevent, and mitigate telecom fraud and scams across our networks through real-time fraud intelligence sharing and cross-network coordination," the letter stated. Airtel also recalled its earlier appeal made in October 2024, where it had written to all TSPs proposing a collaborative approach to tackle the growing issue of Unsolicited Commercial Communications (UCC). That proposal suggested mutual sharing of corporate connection details used for commercial calling, in a standardised format, to proactively monitor spam and prevent misuse. It also included the idea of creating a centralised data-sharing platform similar to the existing Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) system to combat UCC effectively without hampering legitimate enterprise services. Meanwhile, Airtel Vice Chairman and Managing Director Gopal Vittal is expected to soon reach out directly to customers via email to raise awareness about financial frauds and scams, which he described as 'a regular threat for Indians.' Sources said Vittal's message will detail Airtel's ongoing initiatives, including the AI-powered spam detection solution launched last year, and new tools to detect suspicious links across OTT platforms, social media, and messaging apps, and block them in real time. Vittal warned that scam tactics have evolved and become more organised and dangerous over the past year. "Fraudsters today are targeting people not just through calls and texts but also through chats, emails, social media apps and other platforms," he said. He cautioned that scammers often impersonate banks, utility services, or courier companies, sending messages that appear urgent to trick users into clicking malicious links. "And these links look absolutely genuine, almost impossible to tell apart from the real ones. Once you click, they extract your personal and financial information and use it to scam you. We are seeing an alarming surge in such threats in the last few days," he added. On the new protection mechanism, Vittal reassured customers that 'whenever they are on the Airtel mobile network or connected to Airtel Wi-Fi, this added layer of protection will be active by default.' Stay informed with the latest business news, updates on bank holidays and public holidays . AI Masterclass for Students. Upskill Young Ones Today!– Join Now
