Telemarketers triple charges for pesky calls and SMSs

Despite tall claims by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (Trai), blacklisted and unregistered telemarketers have tripled their charges to bombard both do-not-dial (DND) and non-DND mobile phone numbers with promotional SMSs for their clients.

Mohit Trehan, who operates his telemarketing business from Patel Nagar, West Delhi, told this correspondent, who posed as a client, that he would charge 12 paise per SMS to a DND number and 9-10 paise to a non- DND number.

This is three times what telemarketers charged earlier this year, when an SMS to DND numbers was priced at 4 paise and that for a non-DND number 2 paise.

Clients are offered a package of a minimum of 1 lakh messages, which enables these illegal operators to rake in a tidy sum of up to Rs 12,000 for DND numbers.

"We are charging you more now because of new laws which restrict promotional messages on DND and non- DND mobile numbers.

It has become a risky business. But you need not worry. Leave the rest to us. We also have contacts with officials," Trehan claimed.

"We will give you a user ID and password. You will have to operate it through your computer or laptop. The sender's address will be a short- coded number so you will not be caught anyway.

God forbid if anything untoward happens, you don't have to worry at all," Trehan bragged. " We have been servicing our clients regularly without any hurdles." According to sources, these operators have a data base of high- end mobile phone users and also segment- wise figures like businessmen, industrialists, corporates, students, housewives and others in different professions. These illegal telemarketers pay for getting the data.

Promotional bulk SMSs are largely related to educational institutions, real estate developers, investment and insurance companies besides others who are into health gadgets, electronic or electrical products.

According to sources, there are hundreds of telemarketers operating across the country. In the capital, large numbers of telemarketers operate from places such as Laxmi Nagar, Shakarpur, Patel Nagar and Dwarka. Many of them operate from home as well.

Trai has admitted that despite having stringent guidelines, pesky calls and messages from telemarketers announcing bumper lottery wins, luring customers to buying property and selling products are smartly engineered leaving the government agencies helpless.

Trai chairman Rahul Khullar on Wednesday had pointed out that the number of violations in these cases has drastically come down. " But you cannot completely root out such violations.

We have stringently implemented the guidelines on pesky calls and have penalised some operators," he had said.

Between August 5, 2012, and August 4, 2013, 5,56,834 complaints were received by access service providers, which is an average of 46,402 complaints per month. The figure stood at 1,49,882 complaints from September 27, 2011 to August 4, 2012, which is an average of 14,998 per months, according to the figures released by the Department of Telecommunications.

The government brought in a regulation to control the menace of unsolicited calls and messages on September 27, 2011, but the menace is back to haunt subscribers.

Courtesy: Mail Today