[montsa007]

Hello Guys,

Let me share what my call history was like before I started taking the steps which I'll be sharing.

Used to get 10 to 15 calls on each of my number, yes my DND was fully active. These were mostly from finance companies, stock market channels, credit card sellers, donations. I was tired of telling them that "I have surrendered your credit card, I no longer want to enroll in it again", "My number is on DND list, please check before calling me", "I do not need a personal/pre-approved loan". I got a scripted reply, "We will update it in our system & ensure you do not get a call next time" which we all know never happens . Don't want to take any names, we all know the infamous callers.

As of now I get a maximum of 2 to 3 calls which can be handled easily on worst days & some sunny days days I get 0 calls from telemarketers.

I'm not talking about changing numbers, its extremely painful to switch your number, have it updated with banks, friends, demat account, insurance, mutual funds, electricity dept., and god knows how many places which is a herculean task. I'm talking about reducing the spam on your existing number without having to pay any additional fees.

I use an Android phone, I am not sure for the steps/apps in an Iphone apologies in advance to Apple users if this doesn't work out for you.

1. I have installed Truecaller, it does have a data privacy concern highlighted multiple times, I haven't found any good alternative yet so I'm using it. You may skip this step, however your results may vary & you may need more manual intervention. I've pre-blocked all numbers starting from +140 to win half of the battle,

In Truecaller App go to settings > Block > Block Someone Manually > Number Series
Over here enter "Number that starts with" "+140", +9140
The feature to automatically block 140 series is currently a premium feature, however we can manually enter the series to have it blocked to avoid paying the premium.

2. Enable Truecaller Caller ID (I haven't set Truecaller as my default dialer), this will ensure the spam callers are tagged in red, so you know if you've to pick it up and report to proper authorities (next step) or let it ring.

3. Going 1 step further & making their life miserable to ensure they don't bug you or anyone else

In Playstore there's an app called "TRAI DND 3.0 (Do not Disturb)" published by "Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI)", install that app. I accidentally stumbled across it, read the reviews & thought to give it a try.
Register your mobile number(s) with it. The app does require you to re-register everytime there's an update, remember to do it.

Now everytime you receive a call from a telemarketer, & if you answer it, you can report it as telemarketing call through the Trai App. Open the app & tap on "Report Voice UCC", fill in the necessary details & submit. There's an option to report SMS as well, haven't tried it yet.

What this does is puts the telecom provider in action & investigating mode. Once you complain, you get an acknowledgement number via SMS (I use Airtel & Vi in the same device, so while complaining be careful to report it to the correct operator, Ex. received a call on Vi but wrongly reported it to Airtel won't work). You get a tentative date by when the case will be closed, I do not keep a track of every case I report but ensure to religiously report every telemarketing call I've picked up without fail. There is an option to report the number to Google, but that would mean "Don't bug me, but bug others", however reporting through the Trai app would mean "Don't bug me or anyone else" as the operator is forced to take action on something which is backed my Trai, whereas operator may say "Meh" to a google backed complaint. Ensure you complain within 3 days of receiving the call, if you do it after 3 days no action will be taken, you'll get an SMS stating "Sorry bud you're late on this one, nothing we can do"

Here are some screenshots of the updates I've received from the telecom operators,

I can recall mostly 3 actions in these texts,
1. 1st time violation, warning given & put on 1 month usage cap.
2. 2nd time violation, put on usage cap of 6 months
3. Number disconnected

The usage cap itself is a good deterrent to stop calling from that number.

After having reported these calls to TRAI App for approximately 2 months the volume of these junk calls has dropped significantly (From 10-15 a day to 0-2/3 a day). Many will say, these guys can obtain new connection(s) and start to bug you from the new number, the thing I've observed and read in the app reviews is, once you start reporting you get some sort of VIP tag (Made up word, but you know what I mean) as in "This nuber is not to be messed with", you don't get bugged by these guys, be it an old number or a new number, the key is to report them.

It'll be unrealistic to assume you'll lead a spam free life, not possible as some or other guy will end up calling you to stick their product, best you can do is minimize that window which allows people to reach you.

Enough gyan, screenshots below. (Screenshots are a bit old as I barely receive any spam calls now, there was just 1 thread of Airtel, many reports done) I'll share future updates on complaints as and when I receive any updates.







I hope this post helps you lead a spam free life.

[GTO]

Thread moved from the Assembly Line to the Gadgets & Software section. Thanks for sharing!

Going to our homepage in the coming days

Thanks to TrueCaller Premium, the incoming spam calls & SMS on my phone have dropped 95%. I almost take no spam calls. If the problem ever worsens, I will deploy your tricks & defence mechanism.

On the other hand, am quite concerned about spam that's making its way to WhatsApp messaging. I had always marvelled at how there was almost zero spam in the most popular messaging platform of India. But now, I am getting 2 - 3 spam messages per day from stores, brands, brokers, unknowns. Luckily, haven't suffered those international spam calls that everyone is complaining about on Twitter.

[pratyaksh]

+1 to the Truecaller Premium for sure.

Try this;

Send "Fully Block" from your number to 1909. This is better than another short message that we used to send earlier (forgot what it was - maybe Block Spam or some such).

Download an App called 'Doosra', and create a mobile number there. Give this mobile number to all sites/offices/shops/retailers, and voila - you are spam free habibi!

I am using my Doosra number even on e-tailer websites, and have stopped receiving calls from their delivery guys who are too keen on calling instead of finding my address themselves. Now they just deliver to the guard after failing to call me. Never missed a delivery BTW.

Originally Posted by montsa007

Now everytime you receive a call from a telemarketer, & if you answer it, you can report it as telemarketing call through the Trai App. Open the app & tap on "Report Voice UCC", fill in the necessary details & submit. There's an option to report SMS as well, haven't tried it yet.

You are basically doing God's work here. I thank you Sir.

[rishi.roger]

As much as I like the idea of TrueCaller, and I jumped into the bandwagon of its premium service, I have noticed that the number of calls spiked up albeit these calls are those that true caller was able to identify.

I am hoping that someday they release a feature which allows blocking of calls that are suspected as spam and not just those that are verified spam. This is a must, but the sad state of affairs is that its not implemented. This alone could drop those calls by insane amount instead of manually rejecting which is still an annoyance.

[ph03n!x]

Originally Posted by montsa007

...
1. I have installed Truecaller, it does have a data privacy concern highlighted multiple times, I haven't found any good alternative yet so I'm using it. You may skip this step, however your results may vary & you may need more manual intervention. I've pre-blocked all numbers starting from +140 to win half of the battle,

In Truecaller App go to settings > Block > Block Someone Manually > Number Series
Over here enter "Number that starts with" "+140", +9140
The feature to automatically block 140 series is currently a premium feature, however we can manually enter the series to have it blocked to avoid paying the premium.
...

Be a little mindful of this, for yourself and for anyone reading this. There are a lot of valid +9140 calls - 040 is Hyderabad STD code, while 140 is the area code of telemarketers registered under NCPCR.

For example, ICICI Bank has automated verification for high value withdrawals or transactions on debit/ credit cards which usually come from their Hyderabad lines. If you miss answering the automated call and confirm you indeed are doing a high value transaction, the transaction may fail and your card will get blocked until you call customer service.

That aside, I've been religiously reporting spam calls to 1909 from the time TRAI implemented it. I barely get 2 or 3 calls a week, usually from Bajaj finance, Axis bank or HDFC bank. And some random real estate call or Airtel DTH offer. So yeah, marking yourself as fully blocked/ DND is effective over time.

Funny incident about Truecaller - I used to get a call with "My Sweet Darling" as the name, and my wife freaked out when she saw the phone ringing. It was the receptionist of my wife's doctor, whose name was stored as such by her sweet darling...

I'll leave the ending of the story to your imaginations

[PaddleShifter]

I had once reported such a number in 2014 using “India against Spam” app. I was a postgraduate student back then. Within a few days, two people started calling me repeatedly that their company’s phone numbers have been blocked and started bugging me to not do this to them and that this was a mistake from their end.

They even reached my work place and I gave in to their request at that point. It was a big mistake from my side to give them in writing that I had accidentally reported that number.

[Rookie_Jeeper]

Thanks for the detailed post,very comprehensive!

Google has a call screening and spam filtering feature in Pixel devices. It seems to be doing it's job well for me so I never had to install any 3rd party apps. I am not sure if the same can be ported to other android devices by installing the Google dialer apk or something.

[landmaster18]

I had been a lifelong android user until now. Still use a mid range Samsung phone with 5G capabilities that is more than 2 years old. But my next phone is definitely going to be an Apple iPhone. Android leaks a lot of information and you as a consumer really become a product unfortunately. Best is to use a Pixel phone or an older Android with rooted OSs like Evolution X or a relatively safer one like Calyx OS or Graphene. The disadvantage however is that you miss out on conveniences quite a bit - can't use UPI apps etc etc.

I've never had an Apple except for a nearly decade old iPad and still works well. Experience is much better and there is a sense of refinement that is definitely missing in an android. The ipad has aged well unlike the Androids and the replacement cost is almost like for like. I know people still using iPhones from 2017/ 2018. In the same period, I went through 3 android phones!

Android also really "listens" to your conversations. and increasingly these days I feel manipulated and cheated about it. This has happened multiple times. One recent example - a colleague and I were talking about some formal footwear for official meetings and suddenly the ads all over my chrome browser are filled with Clarkes and Hush Puppies! This wasn't a one off for sure.

[Rajjay]

Very useful information. I installed the TRAI app immediately. I get numerous calls from +140 and let me see the effect of the TRAI app.

[DigitalOne]

Hiya pre-installed on my Samsung phone works well for me. Around 5-10% of the spam calls escape Hiya's filters but I promptly report them, and as per Hiya this information is shared with the Telecom operators. Reporting spam calls is quick and fast.
Hiya does only spam filtering and is not a Caller id service.

[rahul1407]

For some reason, "fully block" has never worked for me, despite sending the last such request in April. Robocalls spam me the most and 9/10 calls are unwelcoming on my phone.

I will give these a try as well and would update here in a few days if that works. Although as another bhpian mentioned above, blocking +140 series may block some valid callers as well so would skip that step.

[nstark13]

Not exactly linked to the thread but incase someone is bugged by the sheer no. of ads you get while visiting blogs, articles and other pages you can block them very easily and that too without installing any third party app.

This works in ios as well as Android:

Step 1: Search for Private DNS in settings.
Step 2: Select the option for manually entering a dns address.
Step 3: Enter the address, "dns.adguard.com", let the wifi/mobile data reconnect and Voila! You're good to go.

[dicor]

Originally Posted by ph03n!x

Be a little mindful of this, for yourself and for anyone reading this. There are a lot of valid +9140 calls - 040 is Hyderabad STD code, while 140 is the area code of telemarketers registered under NCPCR.

+1, I wanted to say the same thing.

Originally Posted by GTO

[b]
Thanks to TrueCaller Premium, the incoming spam calls & SMS on my phone have dropped 95%.

+1, and I feel that TrueCaller is the biggest threat here. Just by installing it, I expose thousand of contact to them. Even I don’t install it, others are installing and anyways they are leaking my number.

Originally Posted by landmaster18

I had been a lifelong android user until now. Still use a mid range Samsung phone with 5G capabilities that is more than 2 years old. But my next phone is definitely going to be an Apple iPhone. Android leaks a lot of information and you as a consumer really become a product unfortunately.

I get a lot of calls, texts and WhatsApp messages.

I would classify them into four categories.

1. Generic telemarketers (spammers)
2. Occasional or need-based tele marketers.
3. Scammers
4. Informative calls.

The biggest generic spammers are LIC, Bajaj Finance for overdrafts, Credit card sellers, HDFC personal loans, the work-from-home messages from some South Asian countries having a Chinese face as DP.

The occasional or need-based spammers are local real estate agents, builders, used car sellers etc. Most of them happily de-list your number if we request them.

The scammers are the ones who tell you that your account will be blocked if you don’t do KYC.

The informative automated IVR calls are like a reminder to renew your insurance, a notification from your security gate about the visitor, and IVR calls from your service station about your experience with recent service.

We need a pattern to identify spam calls, unfortunately, the telemarketing strategy is evolving faster than anticipated. These callers do use private registered 10 digits numbers to spam via phone calls. Even if their number is blocked, they immediately switch to a new number.

The true caller works on a publicly reported database, blanket blocking could do more harm rather than benefit. I have seen people reporting informative calls as spam, so a blanket-blocking also bars calls from main gate security calls.

Privacy of data
When we register on real estate portals, we get an option for not allowing them to share our numbers with others, however, irrespective of what we chose, our number is shared with every real estate agent.

Purpose of the data
In the UK, there is a law which states that data will only be used for the purpose of what it was demanded. In India, we don't have strict data privacy laws and I feel that the government itself is involved in violation of these laws. There was a great initiative by the government to find out COVID patients near you (remember Aarogya Setu?), and now all the phone numbers which have been associated with those apps are used for other purposes. See the attached thumbnail.


A gentleman also spoke about "VIP" citizen concept to whom people will not mess. That's not possible in most of the cases, because the numbers database with tele-callers is not refreshed periodically.

@montsa007, Thanks for sharing about the TRAI app, but I find this idea very vague that on one instance reported by a single user can lead towards capping on my SMS, calls!!! What if someone reports my number for some fun or revenge?

Android vs iPhone battle
I see that some user thinks that it’s Android or iOS. No, it’s not Android that leaks our data, it’s the apps that do it and those apps are able to do it because we are allowing them to do it. Many of us are not very mindful about reviewing permissions while installing the apps.

The iOS has some added advantages of a security layer but then it comes with its own drawbacks, such as we can’t use the TrueCaller to its full potential. TrueCaller cannot identify numbers at runtime, it can’t control the “call/phone” module in iOS, thus it won't be able to auto-mute/cut the call.


The spam ads on Android are evident on cheap Chinese phones which are sold at lower prices and they recover the cost by installing some default 3rd party apps and allowing them to use that device as handheld billboards.

I had a flagship phone by Samsung and I never found this issue. Similarly, Samsung high-end phones come with Knox security, therefore stealing data from these phones is a difficult job.

Changing number
A lot of people also think that changing the number would solve the problem, so the first thing is that the new number which we get may is not a fresh one, it may belong to the previous owner. Even if it is fresh, it is a matter of a few days before this new number will spread like wildfire.

What I want to say is that there is no foolproof way of avoiding these spam calls.

Here are some solutions from me and some collated from the posts above.

• Register numbers on the DND, TRAI app.
• Keep blocking these numbers regularly on TrueCaller, phone or WhatsApp.
• DO NOT turn on “block all spam calls”, features.
• For emails, use an alias feature, such as YourGmailId+WebsiteName@gmail.com , if the website sells your email, you would be able to easily block those spams.
• Use your secondary number for registering on non important portals. Keep your Aadhar/bank number separate.
• For temporary registration, use disposable emails, and phone numbers. These are generally used for OTP.
• Be mindful when granting permissions to the apps (be it iOS/Android/Windows). Even you can utilize your free time to review the permissions to the already installed apps.
• If you can afford, to have an assistant, ask him to pick up the calls first and only hand them over to you after verification. I have already done that in the past. By the way, my 5 years old son, loves to do this for me.

[kaps454]

As for a "VIP badge", I too earned it by bugging telemarketers, one of my favorite and least time consuming MO was to agree to a credit card and use a fake gps app to send the guy coming to get the forms signed to some hell hole in a run down part of delhi.
Got me blacklisted and have never been bothered by credit card companies. The only one that does is the bank that i hold my salary account in.

regards kaps454

[cdrajeevkumar]

Voted for option 3.

One of the most pathetically designed and released app (it’s even worse on iOS) There’s no use reporting as many times I’ve received a response that states “We couldn’t find any issue with the called number. Hence your case is being closed”. I have called Airtel umpteen number of times but they’re not helping much.

So now my policy for unknown numbers is to let it go to my voicemail and based on the message I would either call back or let it go! Optionally I’ve subscribed to Doosra and gleefully share this number at malls and other locations! The pesky calls / SMS don’t ring at all and I’m so stress free now !!

PS: I’m not associated with Doosra in any way but I like their service and hence sharing it here !