New Delhi: Spammers and fraudsters may soon find it tough to call customers in the middle of nowhere. The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) is set to roll out new measures that will ensure that the caller’s name flashes on the screen during an incoming call. According to sources, the name will flash on the basis of the customer’s KYC (Know Your Customer) documents available with the telecom operators.
The measure, which will work to the benefit of the general public, will also enable the authorities to ensure compliance on part of teleom operators for completing KYC documentation of subscribers. This is in turn expected to curb unverified callers, spammers and more importantly, cyber-criminals, who resort to using multiple sim cards to carry out fraud.
According to a report in Financial Express, a similar arrangement is also likely for WhatsApp calls. According to the report, there were objections being raised by certain groups that displaying customer’s name may amount to invasion of privacy. However, the matter is being dealt with through a legal and consitutional process.
So far, caller identiification is facilitated through apps such as Truecaller. However, Trucaller is based on crowd-sourced data, as a result of which the identification of an individual is at times deceptive. This shortcoming will be eliminated with the KYC-linked identification, which will be backed by verified documents.
According to reports, the move is a step in the direction of TRAI’s efforts to put a stop to commercial and spam calls. The regulator is currently working on a consultation paper which will also reach out to general public in various cities before concluding the paper and submitting final recommendation to the government.
While the internet is flooded with curiosity over the TRAI measure raising queries such as TRAI app, TRAI caller ID app, it is not known whether the names would display by default, or, customers will have to download an app to see the names.
