Truecaller CEO Blames TRAI for Rising Spam Calls!

A standoff has developed between Truecaller and TRAI. Truecaller has publicly locked horns with India’s telecom regulator (TRAI) over regulations concerning caller ID apps. The company argues that the anti-spam system implemented by TRAI is making it difficult to protect customers from unwanted calls. This dispute centers on a TRAI rule that prevents Truecaller from displaying information to users regarding calls from specific marketing number series.

Truecaller CEO Rishit Jhunjhunwala has taken to social media to challenge TRAI. On the platform X, he openly challenged the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI), alleging that the regulator is preventing Truecaller from displaying community-reported spam information for calls originating from the country’s specific ‘1400’ and ‘1600’ number series. He claims this restriction is leading to the misuse of these numbers and eroding public trust in legitimate business calls.

Jhunjhunwala has openly stated that TRAI’s move to seek permission from the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology to withhold caller ID information for the ‘1400’ and ‘1600’ number series was completely illogical. He asserted that this measure would only lead to a further increase in spam calls, noting that spam calls from these series have already risen significantly due to the restriction on displaying this information.

It is worth noting that TRAI implemented a system in 2024 designating the ‘1400’ and ‘1600’ number series for commercial communications. The 1400 series was used for business telemarketing calls, while the 1600 series was utilized for service and transaction-related calls. TRAI had subsequently made it mandatory to shift to these specific number series. The regulator stated that this move would help customers identify legitimate business communications and curb spam and scam calls.

Now, Jhunjhunwala has argued that this new policy has led to unintended consequences, noting that customer trust in these designated number series has eroded. Over the past eight months, Truecaller users have ignored 81% of calls from the 1400 series and 79% of calls from the 1600 series. He revealed that during this period, users manually blocked 74 million calls from these two series, while the daily volume of blocked numbers from the 1600 series has more than tripled since October 2025.