The Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) is reportedly expanding its efforts to stop spam calls, messages and phishing with assistance from over-the-top (OTT) apps such as WhatsApp, Signal, Telegram, Google and Instagram. The regulator will soon set up a meeting with the app makers to discuss how OTT communication players fit into the mechanism mandated by it, in order to control spam and phishing.
With the telcos and the regulator working on creating artificial intelligence-based solutions to check spam calls and messages over the regular terrestrial network, scammers have taken a shift to OTT platforms like WhatsApp. The solutions developed by mobile operators work on calls and short service messages, as of now. The current initiatives taken by TRAI and telecom firms do not work on OTT apps since they are not regulated, nor do they fall under the licencing regime.
Although there have been attempts by apps to make communication more secure by checking for spam and phishing. Scammers usually create fake accounts on Instagram or Facebook, to approach potential victims on the platforms with fake offers and phishing links. They even offer jobs or fake threats like the closure of bank accounts. In the majority of such cases, the numbers sending these messages over WhatsApp are 10-digit ones labelled as a business.
