TRAI’s JCoR Meeting Tackles Telecom Spam, Fraud, and Cross-Sector Collaboration

New Delhi [India], April 25: Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) hosted a major joint meeting of the Joint Committee of Regulators (JCoR) to address major regulatory issues in the digital world, including unsolicited commercial communication (UCC), spam, and spoofed calls. The meeting witnessed the participation of members from various industries like banking, insurance, IT, and telecommunication to address the issues that cross-sectoral collaboration can solve.

The committee, which was initially formed by TRAI, is a forum for regulators from telecom, IT, finance, and consumer affairs ministries to come together to discuss concerns related to digital communication. At the meeting, TRAI Chairman Shri Anil Kumar Lahoti emphasized the importance of fighting spam and fraud, more so among sensitive groups like senior citizens. One of the priority agenda items was tackling the misuse of communication platforms by spammers and fraudsters.

One of the most important topics of discussion was the roll-out of the 1600 series numbers, which are government and financial industry transactional calls. The committee members agreed that the transition needed to be accelerated to ensure transparency and prevent fraudulent calls. They also discussed onboarding commercial communication senders onto the Digital Consent Acquisition (DCA) platform and how to prevent fraudulent communications, including removing unused message headers and blocking numbers that scam.

JCoR members also exchanged views on the new trend of scams and spam through OTT and RCS communication platforms. The session concluded with a reiteration of enhancing cooperation to safeguard consumers and create a more secure telecommunication environment.