Tired of loan offers, credit-card pitches, and property calls at dinner time? You can stop most of them. Register your number under Do Not Disturb (DND), then report each pesky call or SMS as Unsolicited Commercial Communication (UCC) within seven days. Here is the exact, current process for India in 2026.
Quick answer: Activate DND through the TRAI DND app or by dialling or SMS to 1909, and choose which categories you want blocked. When a spam call or SMS still gets through, file a UCC complaint to 1909 or in the app within 7 days. If the message smells like fraud, report it on the Chakshu facility at sancharsaathi.gov.in, and call 1930 for any money lost.
Unsolicited Commercial Communication means any promotional call or SMS sent to you without your consent or against your registered preference. It covers loan, insurance, real-estate, education, and similar marketing. It does not cover genuine transactional or service messages, like your OTP or bank alert.
The rulebook is the Telecom Commercial Communications Customer Preference Regulations, 2018 (TCCCPR 2018), issued by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI). It came into force in February 2019 and is still the governing law. TRAI tightened it through the Telecom Commercial Communications Customer Preference (Second Amendment) Regulations, 2025, notified on 12 February 2025, which strengthened consumer rights against spam.
Registered commercial SMS in India does not come from a 10-digit mobile number. It arrives from a short alphanumeric header (sender ID). Under TCCCPR 2018, your operator suffixes a letter to that header so you can tell at a glance what type of message it is:
| Suffix | Type | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| -P | Promotional | Marketing you can block via DND |
| -S | Service | Updates you opted into, not promotional |
| -T | Transactional | OTPs, payment and account alerts |
| -G | Government | Messages from government bodies |
If a marketing message reaches you from a plain 10-digit number, it is almost certainly an unregistered telemarketer, which is exactly what you should report.
DND lets you block whole categories of promotional calls and SMS. You have three official routes, all free:
Activation may take a few days to take effect across networks. After that, registered telemarketers are barred from sending you blocked categories.
DND is not perfect, and unregistered spammers ignore it. Every time a pesky call or SMS slips past, complain. Under the 2025 amendment you now get seven days from receipt to report it, and you do not need a prior DND registration to file.
Keep a screenshot of the message. Your operator must act on the complaint, and TRAI now expects faster resolution and stronger action against repeat offenders, including disconnection and blacklisting of their telecom resources.
DND and UCC complaints are for nuisance marketing. If a call or SMS tries to cheat you, pretending to be your bank, the police, an electricity board, a courier, or TRAI itself, treat it as fraud, not spam.
The Second Amendment, 2025 shifted the balance toward consumers:
These are penalties on operators and spammers, not on you. Your job is simply to register, report within seven days, and keep evidence.
Suppose Kashvi Pathak, a teacher in Patna, keeps getting personal-loan SMS despite Full DND. She notices they come from a plain 10-digit number, not a registered header, which means the sender is an unregistered telemarketer. On the day each message arrives she forwards it to 1909 as The UCC, 9XXXXXXXXX, 07/06/26, and screenshots it. Within days her operator confirms action on the number. When a separate SMS later claims her electricity will be cut unless she pays through a link, she recognises a scam, reports it on Chakshu, and ignores the link. No money lost, and the nuisance number is on its way out.
Yes, DND registration through the TRAI DND app, SMS to 1909, or a call to 1909 is completely free. It blocks promotional calls and SMS from registered telemarketers in the categories you choose. It cannot stop unregistered spammers on its own, which is why you also report each one as UCC.
Under the Second Amendment, 2025, you have seven days from the date you received the unsolicited commercial communication to file a complaint with your operator through 1909 or the DND app. Report sooner rather than later, and keep a screenshot.
Spam is unwanted marketing, such as loan or property offers, and goes to 1909 as a UCC complaint. Fraud is an attempt to cheat you, such as fake bank or KYC messages, and goes to the Chakshu facility on Sanchar Saathi, with the cyber-fraud helpline 1930 if you have lost money.
No. The 2025 amendment lets you report unsolicited commercial communication even if you never registered a DND preference. Registration helps block categories in advance, but complaining is open to every subscriber.
TRAI can impose financial disincentives on the telecom operator that fails to curb spam, and can order disconnection and blacklisting of the spammer's telecom resources. The penalties fall on operators and senders, not on the person who reports.