"Spam is a tricky problem to solve"

From a customer simply hanging up to companies watching sharply for "throwaway numbers" and regulators taking strict action against real fraudsters (and not getting lost with the man in the middle'), a lot can be done to effectively fight the explosion of frauds and spam. Rajdip Gupta, MD and Group CEO, Route Mobile Limited shares his perspective on Calling Name Presentation (CNAP), DnD, virtual SIMS, 5G and SIM-swap detection and whether they can help dial down intrusions and frauds in India. Excerpts from his interaction with Pratima Harigunani.

- Pratima Harigunani.

What led to the development of products for SIM fraud prevention and digital identity protection? What on-the-road lessons have you learnt as you rolled them out?

We listened to our customers and the challenges they face. Solving these challenges in new ways is a natural progression of our business. We are already helping them with identity protection, for example, by delivering OTP tokens to users via SMS. As we assessed the market, we found that our long-term partner Masivian, based in LATAM, had developed a product that helps businesses understand the risk associated with trusting a phone number. We recognised the opportunity and acquired Masivian to gain a foothold in the LATAM market and leverage its amazing products for our customers.

India has seen a growing incidence of spam calls and messages. What can be done by the industry to address these frauds? Is enough being done?

Spam is a tricky problem to solve. We have seen blunt policy instruments deployed in many markets around the world attempting to protect users from spam calls and messages. These are rarely effective. Sender ID or Caller ID pre-registration, for example, lower the effectiveness of spam messages, but spam messages and calls are still sent in the billions by switching to generic sender IDs or simply misusing other brands' sender IDs.

Mobile Operators can protect users by deploying Al and ML to scan for spam calls and messages as they enter their networks. Regulators can strengthen legislation against those who originate spam messages and calls as we are now starting to see in several markets, but these measures need to be targeted at the fraudsters, not those unwittingly in the middle of the delivery chain. While those in the middle do have some responsibility, targeting them is a blunt tool which simply moves the problem elsewhere rather than solving it.

What's your advice to users and customers?