Trai asks fin cos to use new prefix for service calls

Mumbai: To check the menace of impersonation frauds, telecom regulator Trai on Friday met financial sector regulators, 25 banks and financial institutions, and other industry representatives to ensure that official calls are made from numbers prefixed with a dedicated number series that can be identified by the receiver.
Trai suggested allocating the 160 series prefix exclusively for transactional and service voice calls.Initially, it will be for entities regulated by RBI, Sebi, Irdai, and PFRDA, making it easier to identify callers and prevent fraud.
The meeting discussed how to effectively use this series, migrate the 140 series (for sales) to a new platform, and implement digital consent scrubbing to reduce spam calls.

The telecom service providers and members of the Association of National Exchange Members were also present in the meeting.
The Digital Consent Facility, which allows banks and other entities to send promotional messages, was also discussed. The meeting emphasized the obligations of senders under Trai regulations and agreed to whitelist URLs, use minimum headers and content templates, and take immediate action against misuse. While prefixing the series to numbers will help to identify genuine calls from institutions, whitelisting of headers can help check fraud messages.
Meanwhile Irdai, in a circular, became the first to bar companies from using 10-digit mobile numbers to make calls to existing or prospective customers and use the 140/160 series allotted by the telecom regulator. Irdai’s circular to all regulated entities follows the telecom regulator’s new guidelines aimed at curbing unsolicited voice calls or messages.
Most of the frauds that are undertaken by criminals impersonating bankers, insurance or other government officials is being perpetuated through private mobile numbers.
Insurance companies have also been asked to take steps to spread awareness among customers, in local language as well, about the remedial actions/ steps to be taken in various scenarios such as ONO Registration, Registration of Complaints.