Truecaller CEO Rishit Jhunjhunwala reported that spammers are misusing official 140 and 1600 number series meant for banks and government agencies. Over 5 lakh users flag these calls as spam daily, raising concerns about the effectiveness of current telecom regulations in curbing unwanted communication.
Spammers are increasingly using number series designated by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) for legitimate service communications to bypass filters and reach users. According to Truecaller, these numbers, which start with 140 and 1600, were originally intended to build trust for official alerts from banks and government bodies. Instead, they are being exploited to deliver spam at a significant scale.
Impact on Users and Blocking Data
Truecaller data indicates that users are actively flagging hundreds of thousands of calls from these series as spam on a daily basis. Specifically, the app records approximately 4 lakh spam reports for the 140 series and 1.25 lakh for the 1600 series every day. The 1600 series, which was reserved for critical transactional messages, has seen a sharp rise in misuse. Since October 2025, blocking actions against this specific series have more than tripled, with 7.4 crore manual blocks recorded over the past eight months.
Regulatory Tension and App Limitations
The ongoing challenge highlights a friction point between regulatory directives and caller identification technology. While TRAI allows users to opt out of promotional calls from the 140 series through the Do Not Disturb registry, the regulator has previously placed restrictions on how apps like Truecaller can tag or filter these specific numbers. Truecaller management has publicly questioned these restrictions, suggesting that if hundreds of thousands of users identify a number as spam, the system should allow for effective filtering to protect the end user.
Why This Matters for Investors
For investors, the situation underscores the ongoing battle between spam detection platforms and evolving spam tactics. Truecaller, which relies on its ability to accurately identify and filter unwanted calls to maintain its user base and value proposition, faces a technical and regulatory environment where its primary service is constrained by government guidelines. The ability of the company to effectively manage this in the future—and its ability to influence or work within the changing regulatory framework—remains a key monitorable. Investors may track further developments regarding TRAI's policy on call filtering and whether any future amendments allow for more aggressive spam blocking from these sensitive number series.