All that couldn be as simple as educating people that there is no such thing as "digital arrest".

You are just telling the whole world about the average IQ of an Indian and how they believe in foolish things like "digital arrest".

And an app doesn't solve that. Digital literacy is a need for today, but the entire country is getting the latest smartphone, with dirt cheap data and zero knowledge of how to operate and own that technology.

Presumably the point is what they wrote, e.g. "an app doesn't solve that. Digital literacy is a need for today"

Not saying I agree or disagree but your reply comes across as passive aggressive to me. Not that the parent post makes pleasant insinuations either, to be fair...

When we're struggling with literacy itself, and people have lost huge amounts of money, and there have been several suicides linked to these scams, digital literacy in a passive mode is unlikely to work.

Bangalore is supposedly the most digital literate place in India. The data below speaks for itself.

Aggressive measures then might be justified.

It's very easy to make virtuous comments without knowing anything of the ground realities.

[0] https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/business/bengalureans-lose...

[1] https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/bengaluru-man-lose...

> I have this app installed on my phone, and it helped eliminate "digital arrest" scam calls from 5-6 calls per day to maybe one in 2 months.

Yeah, no. Correlation is not causation. Having the app installed doesn't eliminate calls. The app doesn't have the ability to block calls.

Operators like Airtel stepped up and started flagging spam/scam and now warn their users when they recieve a call from flagged numbers.

How do you think operators built a database of spammers?

I've been reporting spammers since 2005, since DND rules came into place.

Only in the last year have I seen the spam slow down. Earlier operators would dismiss the complaint saying to it was a "transactional communication," now it's logged with TRAI and the operator and they have less room to manipulate the complaint.

Reports submitted through the new TRAI DND app and Sanchar Sathi are handled identically.

Simply installing Sanchar Sathi won’t eliminate spam calls, which was my point.

That's not my understanding.

The TRAI DND app, on IOS, generates a pre-formatted SMS which is sent to the operator on the standard number 1909.

The Sanchar Sathi app sends it to a DOT entity which then routes it to the operator while updating the govt database of reported spammers and scammers. The options are much extensive than just a spam call/sms.

You can report that the individual was impersonating a public official etc while you can not do than at all with the TRAI DND app.

I suggest you try out the platform on their website first before commenting further.

So the problem was not with the app but with how the information was routed at the back end. The back end of the 1909 system could have been modified to write the data to a central registry as well.