The Delhi High court has directed TRAI to curb fake SMS headers, which become an easy way to scam people in the name of very popular digital platforms. Users feel that they are receiving such SMSs from the app they are using, usually with an offer or promotion. Upon following the instructions of the message received, they end up losing money from these apps or even bank accounts at times.
However, this is not the only case where a brand’s identity is infringed over telecom services. Perhaps, a bigger issue than these SMSs is receiving sales calls from agencies of brands. We all receive calls from banks, insurance companies, credit card providers, etc., offering us their services. The issue here is that we do not get calls directly from the companies, but their authorized agents. There is no way to verify if these calls are from authorized agents. We just have to believe them.
For us, the reason to believe is when they tell us the name of the bank, insurance company, credit card provider, etc., because all of them are very credible and reputed brands. Many times, we could be their customers also, incidentally. So our reason for engaging with these callers is only the brand which they name. The case is not only with the banking and insurance sector. It is now with every other service as there are sales agencies selling almost everything – property, holidays, education courses, etc.
The issue is further complicated as barring a few very reputed brands, one can get calls from any number. If the user has a third-party caller identification app like True caller, there would be some indication as to who is calling. But again, it does not verify the authenticity of the caller in being an authorized representative to represent a brand.
A user might feel that there is no harm in such calls as there is no financial loss, unless the conversation goes to the level of asking OTP, etc. Airtel recently launched, Airtel SafePay which adds an additional layer of authentication to curb this issue. But financial loss is not the only fear of falling to such calls.
Using the reputation of a brand, any caller can reach out randomly to users and start collecting data or even updating a stale database to make its use in advertising, marketing, ad-fraud, and other ulterior use cases. Simply, privacy and integrity of an individual can be harmed in the name of reputed brands. There could be no bigger brand infringement abuse than this. If something happens to a user immediately after this call, their user would perceive that the brand which called is leaking data, or something else of this sort.
While blockchain based solutions implemented by operators to trace fake SMS headers is an enablement towards making the system secure and trustworthy, we have still not been able to solve the challenges that surface from pesky calls. One possible solution is to have a unique single phone number identity for every brand, which operators can offer as part of their enterprise services. Something, similar to inbound toll-free numbers.
For every authorized agent, the brand can configure and mask the number with this unique phone number which becomes equivalent to a trademark of the brand in the telecom world. So, whenever, any user receives calls on behalf of any brand through its agencies who may be calling from any number-–mobile or landline, the customer always sees one number which can also be marked verified in caller identification apps as the brands identity.
This way, we can achieve some respite as users and have confidence in taking conversations further. The brands will get added advantage of analysing the outreach efforts of their agents, and also develop quality checks in terms of how frequently they are reaching out to same users to the extent of annoying them.
This decade is the decade of paying attention to the quality of our digital ecosystem including telecom to drive experience for value creation. Only that will engage users meaningfully along with trust and assurance. As we the users dive further into the digital ocean, and face sharks, eels and urchins, it will be only a safety and protection suite that the value chain has to develop together for us to enjoy the spectacular corals of the digital technologies.
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