Its been over a month since the new ruling over Do Not Disturb registry came into effect. I want to put forth this question to all our trak.in readers –
Did this new DND ruling make any difference?
The reason I am asking this question is – No sooner the new ruling came into effect, spammers and marketers found a way to circumvent it. Any marketer wanting to send bulk smses to mobile numbers can easily do so by tying up with many small companies who have started offering these bulk sms services.
Infact, in last one month, I have received atleast 5-6 smses and mails offering services regarding sending bulk marketing emails. Take a look at this following Email.
These service providers are not only sending emails & smses, but they are also blatantly posting this on public forums. If you read the above mail, especially point number 2 – “DND number will also receive SMS”, it quite clear that anyone can circumvent this new ruling. These smses are sent via international routes.
Who is responsible for sending these kind of spam smses? Because the new DND puts the blame entirely on Telecom Operators and they have to face heavy fines, incase the sms come from their network to mobile users.
Coming back to the original question – Did new DND implementation make any difference? I would say “Yes, only to a certain extent”. The number of spam SMSes have gone down, but they do still come. If I received 5 a day earlier, now I get about 2 or 3. Also, spam calls have reduced (not completely gone).
What about you? what has been your experience?
[…] DND or do not disturb feature, was launched way back in October 2011, however, even today the menace of unwanted pesky and marketing calls continue to haunt mobile users in India. […]
It has made a difference for sure but the telemarketers have developed a new way of sending messages. They are using different numbers and in the format of 98XXXXXXXX. I was hoping to get such messages from short numbers like 5XXXX but this is something different. And as you said “spam is building back up again now…”
I have been registered under DND since it was incepted and like everyone else was inundated with spam sms’s. After the new ruling, the first few days were bliss as did not receive any spam sms. But then slowly it started and in the past few days, spam SMS’s are increasing. Also, have noticed that telemarketing calls have increased of late.
A few times I tried registering a complaint on Airtel website. Most of the times one is unable to register the complaint as the format of the sender id does not match with that required on the form. A couple of them were rejected due to “inadequate data”. Only once did Airtel get back saying that an international router was used and blah blah….I guess telecom operators would make it extremely difficult for people to register any complaints and my suggestion to TRAI would be to have the complaint mechanism built on their site and under their control.
Yup…absolutely agreed…spam is building back up again now…
Arun I had registered my number in NDNC registry long long back when it had to be done on individual mobile company's site. It had reduced the number of marketing calls considerably and when they came up with this new directory, I guess they imported all those numbers and put them in closed category.
Few days back I tried to opt in to financials institutions category thinking if I don't do that I wont even receive alerts from my bank and credit cards, but somehow it didn't work and I my request didn't go through. I have continued receiving alerts from banks and cards about my financial activity but absolutely no messages hawking astrology, real estate, financial products or Nazar raksha kavach.. :)
I think most people receive spam smses because they are not completely blocked, they have opted into certain category and spammers take advantage of that by sending any messages disregarding the whole category thing. And I think there is a provision on TRAI's website to complain about such blatant violation of rules.
You are a lucky one if you are getting zero marketing smses…
You are a lucky one if you are getting zero marketing smses…
You are a lucky one if you are getting zero marketing smses…
You are a lucky one if you are getting zero marketing smses…
You are a lucky one if you are getting zero marketing smses…
You are a lucky one if you are getting zero marketing smses…
As mentioned by you , the number of spam sms has gone down drastically but I still receive a couple every now and then. The sender number is an international one . I am not aware of any way of complaining this to the my mobile operator or the telecom regulatory.
It did make huge difference to me, because I am not subscribed to any category. So I have received zero bulk SMSes since the SMS ban came in effect.
It did make huge difference to me, because I am not subscribed to any category. So I have received zero bulk SMSes since the SMS ban came in effect.
You are a lucky one if you are getting zero marketing smses…
Arun I had registered my number in NDNC registry long long back when it had to be done on individual mobile company's site. It had reduced the number of marketing calls considerably and when they came up with this new directory, I guess they imported all those numbers and put them in closed category.
Few days back I tried to opt in to financials institutions category thinking if I don't do that I wont even receive alerts from my bank and credit cards, but somehow it didn't work and I my request didn't go through. I have continued receiving alerts from banks and cards about my financial activity but absolutely no messages hawking astrology, real estate, financial products or Nazar raksha kavach.. :)
I think most people receive spam smses because they are not completely blocked, they have opted into certain category and spammers take advantage of that by sending any messages disregarding the whole category thing. And I think there is a provision on TRAI's website to complain about such blatant violation of rules.
Yash Gadhiya I tried finding something on TRAI's website for complaining but could not. Found something on Airtel website which does not work. I am registered under a complete block category since years and for a few days did not receive any spam but since the past few days it has started again and slowly building up.
Mohit Dewan http://164.100.9.238/ndncregistry/aboutFileComplaint.jsp?reqtrack=null Here it is but it says one has to complain to the service provider.
Looking at the solitary spam sms I received yesterday, I think it was sent from an international gateway because it has no number or an operator prefix. Just the name of the spammer. I am still going to complain to Vodafone and see what happens.
But if someone has a mobile phone connected to a computer and the computer sends out smses using a software then there's not much one can do. Single SIM is allowed to send 200 messages a day. So its not difficult for spammers to use multiple SIMs and send out their daily quota.
Mohit Dewan agreed…. most of are seeing a gradual build up of sms spam again…