How to stop telemarketing calls and texts in India: DND, and where DPDP fits

At a glance

The fastest way to stop most spam calls and texts is to register on India’s Do Not Disturb (DND) list — the National Customer Preference Register — by dialling or texting 1909 or using the TRAI DND app. That’s a TRAI telecom rule, not the DPDP Act. Where the DPDP Act helps is the layer above it: for a specific business you gave your number to for marketing, you can withdraw that consent, and it must be as easy as giving it was.

Educational resource only. This explains how to reduce telemarketing using TRAI’s rules and India’s Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 (DPDP Act); it is not formal legal advice.

First, the honest boundary: two different rulebooks

Spam calls and texts are mainly a TRAI matter; the DPDP Act adds a second, narrower lever — and knowing which is which saves you effort.

Two systems overlap here, and confusing them is why people feel stuck:

• TRAI’s telecom rules (the Telecom Commercial Communications Customer Preference Regulations, or TCCCPR) govern unsolicited commercial communication — the promotional calls and SMS that come down the phone network. The tool is the DND registry. This is your main weapon against the broad flood of spam from senders you never dealt with.
• The DPDP Act governs how a specific business you interacted with uses the personal data you gave it. If you handed a shop or app your number and consented to marketing, DPDP lets you withdraw that consent directly with them.

So: use DND for the general spam problem, and your DPDP withdrawal right for the particular businesses that are messaging you because you once signed up.

Step 1: Register on DND (the fastest win)

Registering on the National Customer Preference Register is the single most effective step, and it takes two minutes.

You can register in any of these ways:

1. SMS or call 1909. To block all promotional communication, send START 0 to 1909. To block only some categories, send START followed by the category code (for example, 1 for banking/insurance, 2 for real estate, and so on) — useful if you want, say, bank alerts but no property spam.
2. Use the TRAI DND app. The official DND app lets you set full or category-wise preferences and report spam from your phone.
3. Through your telecom operator. Jio, Airtel, Vi and BSNL all offer DND activation in their apps and help menus.

Registration typically takes effect within about seven days. After that, promotional calls and texts to your number are supposed to stop, except for the categories you chose to keep.

Step 2: Complain when spam still gets through

Registration isn’t the end — reporting violations is what actually gets senders penalised.

If you still get unsolicited promotional messages more than seven days after registering, you can complain — through 1909 (call or SMS) or the DND app — ideally within three days of receiving the spam. Give the sender’s number, and the date and time. These complaints matter: TRAI tightened its rules in 2025 so that operators must act on complaints faster and it takes fewer complaints to trigger action against a persistent sender. Your report feeds that enforcement.

Step 3: Use your DPDP consent rights on named businesses

For a business you actually dealt with, the DPDP Act lets you cut the marketing at the source.

DND handles the anonymous flood, but for the salon, e-commerce site, lender or app that keeps messaging you because you once shared your number, the DPDP Act gives you a sharper tool. If they’re marketing to you on the basis of your consent, you can withdraw that consent (Section 6) — and the law requires withdrawal to be as easy as it was to give. In practice:

• Tell the business, in writing or through their opt-out, that you withdraw consent for marketing communication.
• You can go further and ask them to delete your number where there’s no longer a purpose to keep it (your right to erasure).
• If they ignore you, use their grievance officer / Data Protection Officer channel, then escalate to the Data Protection Board of India.

This is the layer DND can’t reach: it holds a named business directly accountable for how it uses the number you gave it.

FAQ