Indian mobile phone users 2nd-most spammed in world

CHENNAI: The inconvenience caused to mobile phone users by unsolicited commercial phone calls and texts seems to be far from over. Indian mobile phone users received the second highest number of spam calls worldwide in 2018, according to Truecaller's Insight Special report for 2018 released on Tuesday. Over 6% of the overall calls received by Indian users in 2018 were spam calls, the report said, without disclosing the total number of such calls.

An average Indian phone user received 22.3 spam calls a month in 2018, the second-highest in the world. Brazil topped the list, with its users receiving an average 37.5 unsolicited calls a month. However, average uninvited calls received per user in India is 1.5% less than the previous year, when India topped the list.

Interestingly, spam communications in India seem to originate from telecom operators themselves.

Telcos were found to be the top spammers in India accounting for 91% spam calls. "There has been a substantial increase of spam calls coming from operators/telecom service providers upselling various offers and balance reminders," the report said.

This is followed by scam callers and telemarketers who comprised 7% and 2% of the unwanted calls, respectively. Further, the report showed that calls made in an attempt to defraud users (referred as scam calls) doubled in the past year, going up to 7% from 3% last year. "There's been some major movements in the Indian telecom industry with consolidations, shake-ups, mergers and acquisitions creating a highly volatile ecosystem that we thrive on today," a Truecaller spokesperson told TOI.

"Despite the substantial rollout and penetration of 4G internet services, voice calls and SMS continue to be the primary way for telcos to reach consumers."

Rajan S Mathews, DG, Celluar Operators Association of India (COAI), believes a distinction is required between spam calls/SMSs and those required to be sent by telcos under regulatory provisions. "Most of the messages a TSP (telecom service provider) sends to its subscriber are in the nature of public notice, regulatory compliance and service category which are in compliance to the extant provisions of Trai regulations on UCC (unsolicited commercial communication)," Mathews told TOI.

Truecaller may not have the information about a subscriber's choice- whether he/she has opted for fully blocked category or partially blocked category under Trai's 'Do Not Disturb' registry, a service which blocks unsolicited calls, he stated. "Many subscribers have not opted for any of the preferences under DND and hence receiving calls of any nature by such subscribers cannot be construed as UCC," he said, reiterating that telcos have taken measures required by Trai to curb the menace.

Truecaller said its report aggregated anonymous incoming calls that were either marked as spam by users, or had been flagged so by the platform, during January-October. The caller categorisation used by Truecaller includes telcos, scam calls, telemarketers, political, and robocalls, among others.