Pesky calls: Government imposes penalties of up to Rs 10,000 – Times of India

NEW DELHI: Unable to effectively control the menace of pesky callers and unsolicited messaging, the government has finally decided to slap financial penalties on offenders, also putting in place a mechanism to dismantle the infrastructure of repeated troublemakers, including disabling their numbers and mobile devices.
The maximum penalty has been fixed at Rs 10,000 per violation, and the telecom department also created two special wings — digital intelligence unit (DIU) and telecom analytics for fraud management and consumer protection (TAFCOP) — to track crimes committed through telecom networks.
The decision to impose financial penalty may act as a strong deterrent against the nagging instances of unwanted calls, messages and frauds perpetrated through mobile networks, which had continued unabated even when subscribers registered for the Do-Not-Disturb (DND) service.

To opt out of any promotional SMS henceforth, a mobile phone subscriber will need to send an SMS to 1909 with the message ‘STOP’ followed by the name of the company which has been sending the nagging, unwanted communication.
“This will block all the promotional communications from all the headers registered against the said entity, except transactional messages,” the telecom department said. Apart from unregistered telemarketers, the government has prescribed the stringent regime for even the registered marketers who may be crossing their permissible briefs.
In case of registered telemarketer, the per violation penalty ranges from Rs 1,000 and goes up to Rs 10,000, with disconnection happening when the unwanted communication goes on for three months in particular cases, or exceeds 50 cases in a month for two months.
The digital intelligence unit and the telecom analytics for fraud management and consumer protection wing would co-ordinate with law enforcement agencies, financial institutions and other government agencies in cases involving frauds using telecom resources/ services. They would also identify the connections obtained on fake and false documents, apart from detecting frauds around mobilenumber portability.
Importantly, the two units are also tasked with providing facility to the consumers to know the number of connections working against their names and to report about the connections not taken by them.
A grievance redressal system, among other things, will provide a platform for the public to register their complaints and monitor its resolution with respect to any Unsolicited Commercial Communication (UCC), the telecom department said.