It has now become such a huge nuisance to find my phone ringing at any point of time in the day and when I take the call, it’s someone wanting to sell something. Earlier it was just one or two calls a day at maximum and was still bearable but off late the number has gone up to five or six calls each day, mostly from financial institution offering credit cards, loan services or some sort of insurance. Even a greater annoyance are the messages, number of which sometimes can be as many as twenty messages in a day, mostly from property dealers. If you are as bugged with these unwanted commercial calls and SMSs as I am, here is a little trick that I learnt about how to put a stop to it all.
Under the guidelines issued by Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), it is entirely up to a consumer to decide whether to receive or not to receive any commercial communication. You can opt to either block all commercial calls and messages or to block only calls but still receive messages. Here is how you can do it.
- Complete Block: You will not receive any commercial calls or messages at all.
- Partial Block: Under this category, you will not receive any communication calls at all but can still chose to receive messages as per your preference from any of the following seven pre-defined categories.
- Banking/insurance/financial products/credit cards
- Real estate
- Education
- Health
- Consumer goods and automobiles
- Communication/broadcasting/entertainment/IT
- Tourism and leisure
In order to do this, you need to register your phone number with “National Do Not Call Registry” (NDNC). There are four ways to register:
- Via SMS: Send an SMS to 1909 to activate. If you want to completely opt out of receiving any sort of commercial communication, send “START 0” to 1909. If you want to only block out calls but still receive messages, you can pick any category of your choice.
- Send “START 1” to receive SMS related to banking/insurance/financial products/credit cards but block out all others.
- Send “START 2” to receive SMS related to real estate but block out all others.
- Send “START 3” to receive SMS related to education but block out all others.
- Send “START 4” to receive SMS related to health but block out all others.
- Send “START 5” to receive SMS related to consumer goods and automobiles but block out all others.
- Send “START 6” to receive SMS related to communication/broadcasting/entertainment/IT but block out all others.
- Send “START 7” to receive SMS related to tourism and leisure but block out all others.
If you want to pick two categories, for example if you want to receive messages from both “Health” and “Tourism” categories but block out the rest, send a message to 1909 in this format, “START 4,7”
After sending the SMS, you will receive a message back asking you to confirm your choice to opt out. Once you have confirmed, you will received another SMS with your registration number with NDNC and the service will activate within seven days.
- Via IVR: You can call toll-free number 1909 and follow the instruction in order to register your phone number. Upon successful completion, you will receive a message with your registration number.
- Via Customer Care: Likewise, you can call 1909 and speak to a customer care executive directly. After the registration is complete, you will receive a message with your registration number.
- Via service provider: Another option is to log on to the website of your cellular service provider’s website and register yourself online.
Registration with NDNC is free of charge and you need not pay anything for this service.
The same way, if you want to de-register yourself and start receiving commercial communication again, just follow the above steps the same way but replace “START” with “STOP”
If you are still receiving the calls and messages even after registering yourself with NDNC, you can also file a complaint by sending a message to 1909 in the following format:
“COMP TEL NO XXXXXXXXXX, dd/mm/yy, Time hh:mm”
Replace X with the phone number that you received the call from and mention the date and time when you received the call.
1 comment
thanks for the detailed information.very helpful.