Truecaller CEO explains why spam calls keep rising, warns it's not over yet — ‘It's actually going to get worse’

Published 8 July 2026 · india

If your phone has been ringing incessantly with unknown calls from the 140 and 1600 number series recently, you are not alone. And according to

If your phone has been ringing incessantly with unknown calls from the 140 and 1600 number series recently, you are not alone. And according to Truecaller CEO Rishit Jhunjhunwala, this influx of unwanted calls is actually going to get worse. Truecaller is a leading global communications platform which helps users identify spam and fraud calls. “Wondering why spam calls have increased SIGNIFICANTLY in India recently? Well, it's actually going to get worse,” Jhunjhunwala said in a lengthy X post, as he explained that the mandate from the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) restricting community spam reports has inadvertently triggered a massive surge in unanswered calls, spam, and manual blocking across the country. Also Read | Samsung Galaxy S26 may get Google’s AI scam call detection feature The 140 and 1600 number mandate In 2025, TRAI mandated that businesses contact consumers using specific number series: 140 for telemarketing calls and 1600 for BFSI (Banking, Financial Services, and Insurance) companies making service- or transaction-related calls “with the intention to control the calls using these dedicated number series.” However, Jhunjhunwala said, the telecom agency simultaneously mandated that Truecaller not show any community-reported spam information for these numbers.

This mandate restricted Truecaller from showing “any 140 and 1600 numbers as spam.” “This seemed very strange from our point of view,” he said. 51 million calls unanswered every day With the spam filters essentially disabled for these series, Jhunjhunwala said, “The amount of spam calls made through 140/1600 number series skyrocketed!” Truecaller reported that over 51 million calls from the 140 and 1600 series go unanswered every single day. “There is a massive increase in the amount of reported spam and scam calls by the Truecaller community,” the CEO said, adding that despite this, Truecaller is not mandated to inform its users that those calls are spam. “This happened in front of our eyes and we are mandated not to tell our users that those calls are spam,” he said. ‘Lack of trust’ Because users are no longer receiving spam alerts, Jhunjhunwala said, “People stopped answering calls from 140/1600 numbers because of lack of trust.” Over the past eight months, Truecaller users have ignored 81% of all 140-series calls and 79% of all 1600-series calls, he wrote.

Calling it a “lose-lose situation,” the CEO said that if Truecaller had displayed a verified badge on legitimate communications from these series, consumers wouldn't have ignored genuine calls. 7.4 crore manual blocking Truecaller saw daily blocking actions triple (+208%) since October 2025 for the 1600 series, reserved for service/transaction related calls. In the past eight months alone, Jhunjhunwala said, Indians have taken 7.4 crore (74 million) manual blocking actions against these numbering series. On a daily basis, Truecaller users now actively block 4 lakh calls from the 140 series and 1.25 lakh calls from the 1600 series. Also Read | NCW joins hands with Truecaller for a women’s online safety drive ‘Frequently Blocked’ badge To fulfil its mission of creating trusted communication between consumers and legit businesses without violating the mandate's restriction, Truecaller implemented a workaround. Jhunjhunwala said the app built a ‘Frequently Blocked’ badge. “If a 1600 series number is blocked by many people, we surface this information - but we do not mark it as spam (red on Truecaller).” Looming regulations Jhunjhunwala cited news reports that TRAI is asking the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) for the authority to “regulate caller ID apps to not show any information at all on 140/1600 numbers.” Condemning the potential move, the Truecaller CEO said, it “makes absolutely no sense” to censor community information.