How do customers report spam calls in India, and what happens to the business?

How a complaint is filed

1. 01The person receives an unwanted promotional call or message.
2. 02They report it to 1909, on the TRAI DND app or through their operator, giving the calling number, date and a short description.
3. 03Since the 2025 amendment, people have seven days rather than three to complain, and can report spam even if they have not registered on DND.
4. 04The operator examines the complaint and the sender's registration and history.

What happens to the sender

For registered senders, operators look at complaint counts over a period and can issue warnings, restrict usage or suspend resources when thresholds are crossed. For unregistered senders making promotional calls, TRAI's August 2024 direction called for disconnection of all their telecom resources and blacklisting for up to two years, and the 2025 amendment now sets a 15-day bar for a first violation and one-year disconnection and blacklisting for repeats. The 2025 amendment tightened the thresholds that trigger action. Complaints are tracked against the calling number and the sender behind it, so one careless promotional campaign can put a business's everyday service calls at risk too.

Signals that complaints are coming

• —Many calls ending in the first few seconds with an annoyed response.
• —People asking 'where did you get my number?'
• —Requests not to be called again that resurface in the next campaign.
• —Calls reaching people who never enquired.
• —A rising share of people hanging up partway through a recorded message.

How to keep complaints down

Call people who asked to hear from you, open with your business name and the reason for the call, honour opt-outs immediately, and keep promotion away from evenings and Sundays. Recorded voice broadcasts need extra care because recipients cannot object mid-call.

Outpero's transcripts and sentiment on every call make it easier to spot a script or list that is irritating people before complaints arrive.