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SA fourth on global spam calls list

Staff Writer
By Staff Writer, ITWeb
Johannesburg, 18 Dec 2018
Truecaller says South African callers are among some of the most spammed in the world.
Truecaller says South African callers are among some of the most spammed in the world.

South Africa is the fourth most-spammed country, according to the "Truecaller Insights Top 20 Countries Affected by Spam Calls in 2018" report.

The report says nuisance and unsolicited calls are on the rise around the globe, noting that SA is not far behind.

It reveals the 5.3 million Truecaller app users receive a total of 21 spam calls monthly, which represents a 71.4% increase in spam compared to last year.

In comparison to last year's data, fewer African markets are now sitting in the top 20 list; South Africa is the only country that has topped the list again with an increase in overall spam related calls.

"Digging deeper into the bigger markets, Truecaller found common categories that tie all these spam calls together. The most prominent pattern seen was that operators across the world are the biggest spammers. Another pattern noted was that telemarketing calls from financial services, debt collectors and insurance related matters are spamming our users globally.

"Truecaller has identified and blocked 297 million spam calls in South Africa to date and has identified 12.4% of all calls received in the market as spam. Last year's study revealed that only 1% of calls were marked as scam-related, this year almost half (49%) of all top spam calls were scam related."

Call scams, according to Truecaller, include tech support fraud, the one ring scam, as well as the job offer scam. "Telemarketing is still a persistent problem in South Africa, which accounts to 38% of all top spam calls in the country."

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