TRAI — Employ Technology to Stop Unwanted Calls & Texts

Receiving unwanted and unsolicited calls and messages has become a norm these days. People are already tired of it and want the authorities to stop it because it is giving them a great deal of inconvenience. When the people who happen to answer these calls wind up falling victim to financial fraud, it becomes serious. The statistics are there to back up the claim that such calls serve as the grounds for financial fraud to occur across the country. The problem is serious, becoming worse every day, and only needs the necessary attention from the decision-makers and regulators to make life a little bit easier for the general people.

The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) is already aware of the issue and is working to find a solution using artificial intelligence and machine learning, but given that the problem has been present for some time and has only gotten worse over the past few years, why didn’t the country’s regulatory body for telecom services take notice of it earlier and prevent it from getting as bad as it is now? The government must be well aware that methods for spamming, tricking people into handing over sensitive information, and then utilising that information to commit fraud, alter and improve daily, necessitating the development of an efficient strategy to combat them.

According to a recent poll, six out of ten customers have reported a personal data breach by their loan service providers, while four out of ten have blamed insurance companies or banks. This statistic illustrates the seriousness of the issue. The poll also highlights the data breach in terms of how contact information and other personal details end up with telemarketers and criminal elements. The problem is being experienced by individuals all around the country, and Kashmir is no different. The J&K Police’s Cyber Wing occasionally updates the public on instances of financial fraud that have their origins in spam calling or messaging.

To protect the people, the government must ensure that the spamming scourge is eliminated. The right of telemarketers to conduct business is not being sidelined; they too have a right to do so. However, there needs to be a mechanism in place to ensure that only genuine telemarketers are allowed to do so. Despite having genuine telemarketers on board, subscribers must ultimately decide whether to receive such calls or not. The process of employing technology to stop unwanted calls and texts must be accelerated at the same time to bring much-needed relief to those who, in addition to falling victim to fraud, are also experiencing severe difficulties as a result of something they never wanted. Unaware of the crimes occurring around him, a middle-class man does not deserve to lose everything he has saved just because he answered an unwanted call. It needs to stop!