Regulators Met For Measures Against Spam, Cyber Fraud

Major push for 1600-series call adoption, digital consent pilot with 7 major banks underway

TRAI Chairman, Shri Anil Kumar Lahoti

FinTech BizNews Service 

Mumbai, July 22, 2025: The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) today hosted a meeting of the Joint Committee of Regulators (JCoR) in New Delhi to advance coordinated measures against spam, fraud, and misuse of telecom infrastructure. Representatives from RBI, SEBI, IRDAI, PFRDA and MeitY convened at TRAI headquarters, joined by officials from the Department of Telecommunications (DoT), Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), and the National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI). The forum focused on rolling out collaborative regulatory measures, especially in light of rising digital payment-linked frauds.

Key Outcomes:

1. Urgent Transition to 1600-Series for Commercial Calls
   Regulators discussed setting up timelines for migration to the dedicated 1600-number series for transactional and service calls in the banking, financial services, and insurance (BFSI) sectors. Considering different scales of operation of entities, it was agreed that migration may be made in a phased manner based on the inputs provided by the sectoral regulators to TRAI.

2. Pilot on Digital Consent Acquisition (DCA) launched

A major pilot project is underway to enhance consumer control over commercial communications by replacing unverifiable, offline consents for commercial communication with a secure digital consent framework. The new mechanism will enable the consumers to digitally register, review, and revoke consents through a simple, unified and tamper-proof interface. Coordinated by TRAI and RBI, the pilot includes telecom service providers (TSPs) and major banks such as SBI, PNB, ICICI, HDFC, Axis Bank, Canara Bank, and Kotak Mahindra Bank. Four dedicated working groups will oversee technical, operational, and awareness-building aspects of the pilot.

Prior to the meeting of the JCOR, a day-long workshop was conducted on 21st July, 2025, jointly by the TRAI and RBI, on the DCA pilot in which 8 telecom service providers and 7 banks viz SBI, PNB, ICICI, HDFC, Axis Bank, Canara Bank, and Kotak Mahindra Bank participated. Various issues related to digital consent acquisition were deliberated and all the participant agreed to work together in a sustained manner to move forward.

3. New Enforcement Tools Against Telecom-Based Fraud
   The committee discussed the requirement of automated exchange of spam and cyber fraud data between Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C), Digital Intelligence Platform of the Department of Telecommunications (DoT) and DLT platform maintained by the access providers. This will enable swift action against the telecom resources of the fraudsters —such as number disconnection— so as to prevent them to carry out further frauds.  

4. Curbing Misuse of Enterprise Lines

The Committee flagged the misuse of SIP and PRI telecom lines for bulk spam. Options under discussion include issuing these lines from a designated number range and imposing additional safeguards to ensure responsible use.

5. Revamped Portal for information on SMS headers

TRAI has revamped its SMS header portal viz. smsheader.trai.gov.in, to empower customers to get the information about the entities sending commercial messages using a particular SMS header.

6. NPCI Joins as Strategic Stakeholder

With financial fraud increasingly linked to mobile transactions and UPI platforms, the inclusion of NPCI as a special invitee adds a critical payments dimension to the JCoR’s mandate.

Quote from TRAI Chairman

“In an increasingly digitalized world, cross sectoral collaboration among regulators is crucial for coordinated enablement of services and protection of consumers from harm. In a digital first economy, collaboration among financial sector regulators, digital communication regulators and the security agencies becomes paramount. TRAI appreciates the swift collaboration being facilitated through JCoR in building a reliable and safer communication environment” said TRAI Chairman, Shri Anil Kumar Lahoti.

He also commended DoT’s recent launch of the Financial Fraud Risk Indicator (FRI), which labels numbers associated with financial scams. The Chairman reiterated the need for practical safeguards that deter spam and fraud without placing undue burden on legitimate businesses. He urged sectoral regulators to accelerate implementation within their respective domains and monitor progress closely.