Anatel Revokes Prefix 0303, Warning Experts It Could Lead to More Unwanted Calls

Written by Bruno Teles

Published on 13/08/2025 at 20:00

Updated on 13/08/2025 at 20:01

Prefixo 0303 deixa de ser obrigatório e revolta consumidores que usam código para filtrar ligações

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Prefix 0303 Is No Longer Mandatory for Telemarketing Calls. Anatel Decides to Make the Use of Prefix 0303 Optional, Arguing That Identification Deterred Consumers Even from Legitimate Calls.

Anatel (National Telecommunications Agency) has decided that companies no longer need to use the prefix 0303 to identify telemarketing calls. The rule, created in 2022, aimed to facilitate the identification of these calls, but it is now optional. According to the agency, the requirement had adverse effects, causing consumers to block or ignore all calls with this number.

For Vicente Aquino, a councilor of Anatel, the prefix 0303 has ended up creating a stigma against legitimate calls, even harming non-profit organizations. The measure mainly affects companies that make more than 10,000 calls per day, which were previously required to use the code.

New Rule for Large Operations

Despite the end of the requirement for the prefix 0303, Anatel has established that companies with more than 500,000 monthly calls must adopt mandatory call authentication. This feature, known as Verified Origin, allows for identifying the company, displaying a logo and reason for the contact, as well as ensuring the traceability of the call.

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Criticism and Concerns about Fraud

Idec (Brazilian Institute for Consumer Protection) criticized the decision, stating that the revocation of the prefix 0303 favors telemarketing companies and harms consumers’ right to information. According to the entity, the code helped identify unwanted calls and even scams.

The agency reminds that Brazil is a world leader in receiving abusive telemarketing calls, with over 1 billion calls per month — an average of 743 per inhabitant.

Alternatives for Consumers

Even with the end of the requirement for the prefix 0303, consumers can still resort to tools such as the “Do Not Call” registry from Procon-SP, which blocks unauthorized calls, messages, and charges. Call-blocking apps and native smartphone features also help filter unwanted contacts.

Anatel stated that it will continue to work on actions to curb abuses and fraud, including a specific plan to combat SMS scams in the next 120 days.

The end of the requirement for the prefix 0303 marks a significant change in how telemarketing will be identified in Brazil. For some, the measure facilitates contact from legitimate companies; for others, it opens the door for more unwanted calls.

And you, do you believe that the removal of prefix 0303 will improve communication or increase abuses in telemarketing? Share your opinion in the comments — we want to hear from those who experience this reality daily.

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Anatel Revokes Prefix 0303, Warning Experts It Could Lead to More Unwanted Calls

Prefix 0303 Is No Longer Mandatory for Telemarketing Calls. Anatel Decides to Make the Use of Prefix 0303 Optional, Arguing That Identification Deterred Consumers Even from Legitimate Calls.

New Rule for Large Operations

Criticism and Concerns about Fraud

Alternatives for Consumers

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Anatel Revokes Prefix 0303, Warning Experts It Could Lead to More Unwanted Calls

Prefix 0303 Is No Longer Mandatory for Telemarketing Calls. Anatel Decides to Make the Use of Prefix 0303 Optional, Arguing That Identification Deterred Consumers Even from Legitimate Calls.

New Rule for Large Operations

Criticism and Concerns about Fraud

Alternatives for Consumers

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Almost 6,000 residents live concentrated along a single street nearly 9 km long in the interior of Poland. Houses form a continuous row, and behind them, narrow agricultural strips emerge, creating one of the most unusual rural patterns in Europe.

Chinese woman planted trees for decades while sand buried part of her house, received $5,000 from an American in 1999, and helped transform the desert into a forest of 8 million trees in China.

Desert sand, previously discarded for being too smooth for concrete, becomes an ecological brick in the United Arab Emirates, dispensing with Portland cement, curing at room temperature, and attempting to transform dunes useless for construction into raw material for a new arid engineering.

They planted a sea of eucalyptus to produce cellulose, but the monoculture turned into a green desert, dried up springs and rivers, and pushed families out of regions in Minas Gerais and Bahia.

Júlia Pimentel, an 11-year-old from Minas Gerais, independently invented a new formula to calculate the square root using simple addition and multiplication, and her method was published in one of the most important mathematical scientific journals in Brazil.

Described by astronauts as one of the most unlikely natural phenomena on Earth, the Okavango Delta spreads over up to 15,000 square kilometers in the middle of the desert and transforms Botswana into a living labyrinth of channels, islands, and flooded areas.

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