India’s telecom watchdog has taken new steps to stop unwanted promotional calls and protect people from scams. Starting Tuesday, the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) has instructed service providers to immediately halt all promotional calls from unregistered numbers. These are calls from companies or individuals who haven’t officially signed up to make such calls.

The move comes in response to a rise in spam and phishing calls, which have caused significant financial losses for many people. Scammers often pretend to be from well-known companies like FedEx or Blue Dart and trick people into giving away their financial details by sending fake links about lost packages.

According to the new rules, any caller not registered with TRAI will be blacklisted for up to two years. This means they won’t be able to make promotional calls during that time. Telecom companies must report their actions against these scammers to TRAI twice a month, on the 1st and the 16th.

This crackdown aims to reduce the number of fraudulent calls and protect people from losing money to such scams.