New Delhi: Beginning January 31, mobile phone companies will filter out commercial SMSes with unregistered content, as part of the second phase of blockchain implementation designed to check the flow of spam text messages.
This means any entity registered on the distributor ledger technology (DLT) platform with a unique header ID, for example AX-DOMINOS, will have to submit content templates of all SMSes they wish to deliver to their customers till January 31. From then on, telecom companies will block any SMS originating from an unregistered header or whose content does not match the approved template.
“India is one of the biggest markets for Enterprise-to-Person messaging; and hence a de-facto target for fraudsters,” said Anurag Aggarwal, director-messaging services at Tata Communications. “Content scrubbing will definitely act as a significant roadblock for such illegitimate activities in the future. Few countries worldwide have reached this maturity level when it comes to SMS monitoring and spam traffic management.”
The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai), in 2018, notified the Telecom Communications Customer Preference Regulations (TCCCPR) to curb unsolicited commercial communications. But it was only in September 2020 that telecom companies launched the first phase and started blocking SMS traffic originating from unregistered headers.
ET had reported in November that the telecom regulator had imposed
penalties collectively amounting to Rs 35 crore on eight operators
including Bharti Airtel, Vodafone Idea, Reliance Jio
and state-run Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd (BSNL) for violation of TCCCPR
on various counts, which allowed cyber criminals to issue fake SMSes and
dupe digital payment users.
“Fortunately, after the imposition of fine, operators have finally swung into action... immediately in the following month, the SMS fraud complaints from our users had fallen by almost 90%,” a senior executive at a leading payments company told ET.
Bharti Airtel, Reliance Jio and Vodafone Idea did not respond to ET's queries seeking comment.
Over 90 digital payment and wallet companies including Paytm, PhonePe, MobiKwik, and Infibeam Avenues are embroiled in a legal tussle with the telecom industry in the Delhi High Court, initially filed by Paytm’s parent One97 Communications and joined by industry body IAMAI.
“It is the moral duty of telcos to take the fact into cognizance that customers are being defrauded due to communication which is passing over their platform without required checks,” said Vishwas Patel, director, Infibeam Avenues and chairman, Payments Council of India.
“With the new system in place, cases of such cheating have come down. But, still a lot needs to be done for speedy implementation of content and consent scrubbing, in compliance of the stated regulations,” he said.
As on November 23, 2020, a total of 223,816 headers and 482,000 content templates have been registered by 122,301 entities on the DLT, the latest available data showed.
“Fortunately, after the imposition of fine, operators have finally swung into action... immediately in the following month, the SMS fraud complaints from our users had fallen by almost 90%,” a senior executive at a leading payments company told ET.
Bharti Airtel, Reliance Jio and Vodafone Idea did not respond to ET's queries seeking comment.
Over 90 digital payment and wallet companies including Paytm, PhonePe, MobiKwik, and Infibeam Avenues are embroiled in a legal tussle with the telecom industry in the Delhi High Court, initially filed by Paytm’s parent One97 Communications and joined by industry body IAMAI.
“It is the moral duty of telcos to take the fact into cognizance that customers are being defrauded due to communication which is passing over their platform without required checks,” said Vishwas Patel, director, Infibeam Avenues and chairman, Payments Council of India.
“With the new system in place, cases of such cheating have come down. But, still a lot needs to be done for speedy implementation of content and consent scrubbing, in compliance of the stated regulations,” he said.
As on November 23, 2020, a total of 223,816 headers and 482,000 content templates have been registered by 122,301 entities on the DLT, the latest available data showed.
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