Do not Call Registry
How many of you know that there is a Do Not Call registry statute which stipulates that enterprise organizations involving in telemarketing should maintain. Once a person has registered his name and contact numbers, at least with respect to the law, the telemarketing agency should refrain from calling that number. This, if materializes fully in India would be a great boon for mobile phone and as well as landline phone users from encountering telephone calls for unsolicited personal loans, credit cards and other sundry items. These telemarketing menace is cursed heavily from mobile phone users particularly when the subscriber is in Roaming networks.
United States has a tougher statute on its land. Check out thier Do Not Call Registry website here. According to The Hindu Businessline, April 2005 saw a penalty of $7,70,000 against a morgage company for allegedly calling people whose numbers where there in the Do not Call registries.
For now, I think, the land’s worst telemarketing is from HSBC India followed closely on heels by ICICI Group. The most diplomatic and law-abiding are HDFC, Standard Chartered. Citibank maintains neutrality and there are preferences as whether bank directly serves you or through its direct sales representatives.
Here are some of the DNC registries in India:
- ICICI: http://www.inuonline.com/dnc/donotcall.asp
- HDFC: http://www.hdfc.com/donotcallform.asp
- HDFC Bank: https://www.hdfcbank.com/applications/misc/dnc/dnc.htm
- HSBC: https://www.tools.asiapacific.hsbc.com/webform/apply?id=in+donotcall
- CitiBank India: http://www.online.citibank.co.in/ngrhtm/custhmdnd.htm
- Standard Chartered: https://play.standardchartered.com/smail/in/IN15/index.html
- ABN Amro: http://mail.abnamrobank.co.in/creditcard/do_not_call_servicemail_cc.asp
- SBI: http://www.sbicard.com/sbi/donotcall.jsp
- Canara: http://www.canbankindia.com/personal/card/faircard/faircard-main.htm
This list is partial. Readers. Feel free to share the DNC URLs and contact addresses for the benefit of other users.
Views and Reviews 
August 10, 2006 at 8:23 am
I wish there was only one site to register and it will affect all the banks.
August 10, 2006 at 2:06 pm
Thanks for this post. I’ve gone to the bank sites that have been harrassing me over the last year and filled in the DNC particulars. I’ve not been harrassed by HSBC, but Citibank and HDFC, in my opinion are the worst offenders. They make me want to commit murder!!!
August 10, 2006 at 2:25 pm
@Ketan,
Thank you for sharing your views. Actually, the single national website on DNC is there in US, as has been briefly mentioned in the post.
The website is https://telemarketing.donotcall.gov/ and we can understand how significantly they take the privacy of people in the fact that even the homepage is https:// SSL URL.
We would sincerely hope that Government of India also take earnest steps and initiatives to setup a unified “Do Not Call” registry. But there has been already initiatives from them, which we have to accept and understand. Check out this URL: http://www.zdnetindia.com/news/pressreleases/stories/149944.html
August 10, 2006 at 2:27 pm
@Daisy,
Thank you for sharing your views. You seemed to be lucky in escaping from the clutches of HSBC Telemarketer but in bad times with HDFC. With me, the case is reverse.
I sometimes get three calls in a short timespan of even ten minutes for creditcard and/or balance transfer and interestingly from the same telemarketing guy. HDFC is quite ok. Once in a while only I get calls from them.
Citibank, I would put they have a separate style. They always have one personal loan call, one credit card call. If you tell them, you have already a citibank silver card, they would retailiate why can’t you get one more?
August 11, 2006 at 2:10 pm
I came across a product that is available in US called TeleZapper — http://www.telezapper.com/default.asp
Perhaps, if some visitor knows more about this and advise others whether that would work for Indian Telecom spectrum too, it would be greatly beneficial for other readers.
August 29, 2006 at 4:07 pm
[…] Dhruva claims that this this is the best way to manage unethical telemarketing calls at least in India. In US, I guess there are sophisticated devices like TeleZapper which help people save themselves from such menace. But in Indian arena, I think, this is the only option left. If at least about twenty five per cent of the population could do this, I think, the unethical telemarketing shops would go out of market and this will cleanse the atmosphere too. […]
September 5, 2006 at 9:36 am
Citibank is realy pain in neck.
I daily get 2 calls from them for credit card related product. My fault is i have one credit card from citibank and i think i over used it and gave them indication that i can be a prospective customer for some extra service.
can u imagine, for the last 2 months i daily get 2 calls and i have told them in every possible way not to call me but they dont understand…
I have decided to cancel their credit card now.. and i would go by some SBC or HDFC card, i heard that they dont call much..
any suggestions….
September 6, 2006 at 11:59 am
This is from the Indian Banks Association’s site. First step towards building a national do-not-call registry like the US.
http://www.iba.org.in/useful_links.asp
September 6, 2006 at 12:06 pm
@Arpit,
Thank you for the excellent link from Indian Banks Association. It is a humble step towards ethical marketing effort. Perhaps they should strive and bring a single registration like US.
We hope the Ministry of Finance is listening to our aspirations.
October 25, 2006 at 8:50 am
Deepak,
Recently I came across Consumer Voice India YahooGroups and interestingly I got hold of this forum only from your weblog. It is really very informative and useful to voice the opinion and grievances.
I found one of the readers giving an interesting comparison of DNC to DNT Registry (Do Not Touch Registry). Here is the quote from Prabha Krishnan’s message:
“Sucheta, isn’t the present system akin to saying that if a woman does not want
to be molested she should register with a Do Not Touch registry?” and the original URL is here.
November 3, 2006 at 1:55 pm
Thank you for this wonderful piece of public service. I am forwarding your post to other friends to use
November 3, 2006 at 2:30 pm
@Vijay,
It is a pleasure that this article helped you greatly. Feel free to share the same with your friends circle too.
November 7, 2006 at 3:03 pm
How would you stop sms from banks on credit card offers.
November 10, 2006 at 6:31 am
I read a lot of bad experience of many people with the telemarketing guys… I am sure it’s pretty annoying! At the same time, I sympathize with those telemarketing guys. They are driven by daily targets of sales and they just can’t help but call up and push the product. That is the reason one ends up receiving multiple calls sometimes from the same agency. But the best part of my story here is that my experience with citi bank has been good. I have a banking relation with them for last 2 years. I don’t say I never got a marketing call about a card or a loan, but they have been once in while. Its quite acceptable. I am not complaining 🙂
November 11, 2006 at 7:42 am
Updating the list >>>
10. Airtel Do Not Call Registry: [Chennai]
(*) Call and Register at 121 (Toll Free)
(*) SMS at 345. (For some strange reasons, SMS to 121 is no longer attended)
(*) SMS DND to 700 (TollFree) — as I got a message from Airtel (Promotional Offer on Stopping Promotional Offers) 🙂
(*) Email 121@airtelindia.com (If you are lucky, somebody would reply you) 🙂
11. Aircel
(*) http://www.aircel.com/chennai/donot_disturb.html
12. Hutch
(*) http://www.hutch.in/bottom/dnd.asp
13. Airtel Do Not Call Registry: [Chennai]
(*) http://www.reliancecommunications.co.in/Communications/Rm/rm_index.html
14 Bank of Baroda (BOB) CreditCards
(*) http://www.bobcards.com/dform.asp
December 9, 2006 at 11:35 am
ING Vysya Bank
(*) http://www.ingvysyabank.com/scripts/DND.asp The insurance does not have DNC setup. However, I wrote them at the email to have the same reflected. No response though. 🙂
(*) Tata Teleservices Interestingly, DNC is available only to thier subscribers and hence non-subscribers have to bear with thier nuisance calls till they signup a relationship with them and then signup for DNC. This effectively means, DNC Registry of Tata Tele is a rental service. 🙂
January 21, 2007 at 5:45 pm
for airtel (hyderabad),
sms NOPROMO to 141
sending DND to 700 doesnt work. and it charges rs.3 for that 😦
January 22, 2007 at 4:11 am
A few more …
(*) YES Bank
(*) UTI Bank
(*) MTNL Mumbai
(*) Andhra Bank
February 22, 2007 at 6:34 am
Is there any website where I can register for this “do not disturb” for Insurance products. I’m disturbed every now and then by this Metlife, TATA AIG etc.. If there is one please let me know. Thanks for this wonderful service.
February 26, 2007 at 3:01 pm
[…] Do not call registry After all those irritating calls from the telemarketers was on the lookout for an online do not call registry,I came across this site which has quite a few links[scroll to the bottom of the page as well for updates],However team-bhpians could add to the list on this thread ,especially could someone tell how to add to airtel’s do not call registry for both Pune and bangalore[and rest of the cities in India too] Do not call registry. […]
February 27, 2007 at 4:45 am
Well friend thnx for all this links.. But please could u provide me a link for TATA Indicom. I am a prepaid user and i receive a lot of automated calls for their Stupid Promotions etc..
Hope u can help.
Regards,
ISRAR AMRELIA
February 27, 2007 at 8:22 am
@Israr,
Tata Indicom seems to provide a Do Not Call facility from within your account page. See Comment 16 above for details. Also check out here: http://203.196.226.162:7777/dnd/DNDAction.do?site=377
February 27, 2007 at 9:35 am
I would like to know if anyone knows what is the Do not Dial registry for Airtel Mumbai. Is there any way to stop the highly irritating phone calls having pre-recorded sales messages from telephone operators.
March 1, 2007 at 12:10 am
Hey I want to know if there is any way to avoid all the marketting calls and messages for Hutch Delhi.
April 15, 2007 at 3:27 pm
I have created a Do Not Call / Disturb directory. Users can visit http://www.donotdisturb.in/ and register at appropriate places.
April 26, 2007 at 10:53 am
Is there any website where I can register for this “do not Call” for Insurance products. I’m disturbed every now and then by TATA AIG etc.. If there is one please let me know. Thanks for this wonderful service.
May 2, 2007 at 6:34 am
i need my april month call register details
June 13, 2007 at 7:15 am
Hi,
The best part is a lot of these banks ask for email-id in their DNC form and its mandatory!
I am wondering why they need it. May be to spam using mails rather than phone calls!
I have put email-ids like whydouneed@bob.com for Bank of Board and the funny part is, it accpets that 😉
Regards,
Raghu
June 23, 2007 at 10:16 am
If we can’t stop the nuisance calls, we can have fun with them.
Sometimes when a telemarketeer calls I give the phone to my one year old child and see how long he can keep him on the line.
Or you can ask them to hold, and pretend to get on the other line and say “I got one, yes, start tracing. Send the man with rubber gloves”.
If you get junk post, with a reply paid envelope, send them back scrap paper. Or better, send them other junk mail that you have received. They have to pay the cost.
June 25, 2007 at 12:41 am
@Ardee,
Thanks for your response. You are absolutely true.
Myself and my group of friends and circles have started deploying this strategy. We would pick up the call and keep them saying ‘Hello Hello’. Don’t reply at all.
Our mobile subscription plan in ‘Incoming Free’ even when roaming. So this effectively means a larger outgoing waste for Telemarketers and good profit for my telephone operator at least 🙂 Hope my telephone operator gives some credit to us too. 🙂
If you have seen a film by Simbu and Mumtaj there is a song where Simbu sings ‘Hello Hello… Hello’ and it would be quite similar when this telemarketer keeps saying Hello for a while and then gets this throat dried up to hangup the phone.
July 6, 2007 at 8:20 am
Does anyone know the website for tata aig?!! i keep getting calls from them…i want to update in their do not disturb facility
September 13, 2007 at 6:29 pm
Just wanted to share with you all about the latest update on Do Not Call Registry. I read from one of the news source about TRAI having launched the National Do Not Call Registry which is available in the following URL:
http://ndncregistry.gov.in/ndncregistry/index.jsp
Currently, registrations to the NDNC Registry should be routed through the appropriate telephone operator. They have also given detailed instructions on how to register through the various operators. Here is the document on the same:
Click to access NumbersforSubscribersRegistration.pdf
September 23, 2007 at 8:45 am
[…] should not call those numbers. We also have a comprehensive list of those numbers summarized here. TRAI has now gone one step ahead in implementing a one-point National Do Not Call Registry. Once […]
November 13, 2007 at 1:27 pm
do not call any other icici bank,sbi bank and other loan department
November 13, 2007 at 1:28 pm
If we can’t stop the nuisance calls, we can have fun with them.
November 30, 2007 at 1:00 pm
Airtel subscribers this works:START DND to 121
February 7, 2008 at 12:15 pm
any URLs for do not call and do not SMS for AIrtel Bangalore. I get one SMS and call everyday.
February 22, 2008 at 4:16 pm
Dear madhu,
NDNC is not a success…we can make it a success by contributing 5 mins a day.Go to
http://www.ndncregistry.blogspot.com/ gothere and click on click here and enter phone numbers of telemarketers you collected.
backdoorenter@yahoo.com
http://www.donotcallmedear.com
March 29, 2008 at 12:09 pm
For Airtel in Kolkata, SMS “START DND” to 121.
March 15, 2010 at 9:04 pm
Hi!
Great information to have an update on, earlier i was not so keen on all these.
What I liked DNC info on various banks.
Hope same should be with every telecom operator as well.
I will be looking for more related updates on this regularly.
Cheers!
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