India witnessed 15% rise in spam calls in 2019: Truecaller study

Truecaller has revealed this year's list of 20 countries affected by spam calls the most. According to Truecaller's data, India became the fifth-highest country to receive spam calls this year. Although India's ranking has dropped down to the fifth position in terms of the number of spam calls received by Truecaller users around the world, India also witnessed 15 per cent uptick in spam calls this year. Brazil received the highest ever spam calls this year, followed by Peru, Indonesia, Mexico and India.

Despite the ranking, spam calls received by Indians increased by 15 per cent to 25.6 spam per user per month. In terms of categories, operators themselves made the majority of spam calls to Indians at 67 per cent, followed by telemarketers at 17 per cent, financial services at 10 per cent and scammers at 6 per cent. Operators were the top spammers in the country, primarily due to offers and reminder calls.

With the rise in mobile payment apps, Truecaller recognised financial services, including banks and fin-tech companies emerging as the top spammers in India. Truecaller also studied SMS spam worldwide. India is ranked at 8th position in the top 20 countries that receive the most spam SMS. Indian users received an average of 61 spam SMS every month. The top three countries affected by SMS spam the most were Ethiopia, South Africa and Kenya.

"Operators are well known to be vicious when it comes to spamming their customers. However, with the rise of mobile payments and a growing middle class in India, we have seen banks, fin-tech companies, and outsourced telemarketing services emerging as big spammers," Truecaller said in its report.

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Study findings

-- Truecaller found categories that contributed the highest number of spam calls. Operators were the top spammers worldwide.

-- Scam calls are on the rise globally while spam calls from financial services are increasing.

-- Spam calls in Latin America continue to increase at an exponential rate.

-- Latin America also saw the most significant jump in terms of the number of spam calls.

-- Peru saw a substantial rise in spam calls with users getting 30.9 spam calls a month on average.

-- Indonesia jumped the list from 16th position last year to 3rd position this year.

-- Lebanon 208 per cent increase in spam calls in a year.

-- 1 out of 3 women in India receive inappropriate calls and SMS regularly.

-- The U.S. market saw a 7 per cent increase in spam calls over last year.

-- New markets to enter Truecaller's: UAE, Australia, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Lebanon, Nigeria and Egypt.

-- Malaysia, Australia, Lebanon, Canada and South Africa are the top 5 markets to receive the most scam calls in the world.

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