Ever received a mysterious call from a number starting with 1600 or 140 and wondered if it’s a scam, or your bank calling about a loan? Turns out, those numbers aren’t random at all. They’re part of a structured system designed by authorities to help you identify the nature of the call right away. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has now mandated that banks must use numbers beginning with 1600 strictly for loan-related or transactional communication, while numbers starting with 140 are to be used only for promotional and marketing messages. This move is aimed at curbing financial fraud by bringing transparency to who’s calling—and why.

In a previous interview with NDTV the TRAI Chairperson had stated about allocating specific numbers to various entities for telemarketing and OTPs or even marketing. Referring to important and genuine E-commerce calls, which also fall under commercial calls, Mr Lahoti said that TRAI is in consultation with the stakeholders to allocate other series of numbers for making service and transactional calls. 

Reserve Bank of India का banks को निर्देश

???????? 1600 वाले नंबर से ही आएगी बैंक की कॉल
???????? 140 वाले नंबर से ही आएगी प्रचार के लिए voice call और SMS

जागरूक रहें, सुरक्षित रहें pic.twitter.com/l5u8wdTj5Q

— DoT India (@DoT_India) January 19, 2025

TRAI and DoT are making constant efforts to curb spam calls effectively by utilizing blocking numbers as well as enforcing the traceability guidelines to ensure that proper checks are in place to protect the public from financial fraud and spam taking place through phone numbers. 

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