Mobile apps not making efforts to stop spam: COAI

The Cellular Operators Association of India (COAI) – representing Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea – said that over-the-top (OTT) communication apps such as WhatsApp, Telegram, Skype, Google Chat, and Viber are not taking necessary steps to curtail spam calls and texts on their platforms, and such should be treated with regulations akin to telcos.

“Telecom service providers are doing (curbing unsolicited communication) it. OTTs are not. So, in this one segment, it (spam) is continuing to grow. The other segment (telco) is keeping the citizens’ view in mind,” SP Kochhar, director-general, COAI told ETTelecom, adding that by using AI, some telecom carriers have reduced spam considerably.

“OTT calls should at least be subjected to the same rules and regulations, then they’ll also get blocked. The government has to intervene,” Kochhar added.

Following the growing spam menace, the government asked service providers to block suspicious callers and blacklist telecallers onto their networks that promoted spoof callers to widely use OTT platforms or mobile apps for tricking consumers into scams including digital arrests.

The comments from a Delhi-based telco group come on the backdrop of the Department of Telecommunications (DoT), and Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai) efforts to curb unsolicited commercial communications (UCC) and fraudulent messages, and voice and data calls.

The Indian Cyber Crime Coordination Centre (I4C) statistics reveals that half of the 12 lakh cyber fraud complaints received in 2024 were carried out by fraudsters in Southeast Asian countries — Cambodia, Myanmar, and Laos.

Indians lost Rs 11,333 crore to scamsters in the first nine months of 2024, according to data compiled by the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) coordination wing.

Last month, the telecom department (DoT) said that it had implemented a system to block international spoofed calls enabling it to block nearly 90% of the identified spoofed calls.

Kochhar further said that most of the telecom operators have been using AI, considering it as cost-effective, and added that telecom companies should be free to use a solution of their choice.

Recently, I4C mandated telcos to use a homegrown spam blocking solution on a three-month trial basis, but later clarified that “telcos may develop their own tool” to stop the misuse of SMS headers.