India Received The Fifth Most Spam Calls In The World In 2019, 23% More Than Last Year

How often do you get spam calls? Are you getting spam calls more often than before? If the answer is yes, you are not alone.

Truecaller reported that the number of spam calls has gone up by 18 percent in 2019. On Tuesday, the firm published the annual report that said from January to October, global users got 26 billion spam calls, which is 8.3 billion higher than the same period of 2018.

Sadly, India is still in the top 5 countries affected by spam calls the most, with 25.6 calls recorded per user a month. Last year, the country received 22.3 spam calls per user per month and was the second in this list.

In India, the mobile subscriber base has increased by a thousand times, from one million to over one billion within 20 years. In the country, over 80 percent of spam calls are from telemarketers and telecom providers.

The US is still in the eighth position with 35 percent more spam calls compared to 2018, 18.2 calls as opposed to 16.9 calls per user each month. Earlier this year, Truecaller estimated that 43 million users in America were scammed in 2018, costing them around $10.5 billion, despite authorities and local carriers’ efforts.

Meanwhile, Brazil topped this list again with 45.6 calls, almost twice the figure for India. Users in this country are receiving more spam calls because of its own internet service providers and telcos. According to Truecaller, in the past year, operators’ calls have gone up from 32 percent to 48 percent of total spam calls in the country.

One of the most important thing in this report is the complexity in understanding the nature of those spam calls. They have no common thread. In some markets like South Africa, most scams are related to tech support and job offers.

In other marketers like Chile, though, 72 percent of spam calls are related to debt collectors. Or in UAE, telcos make up the highest proportion of total spam calls.

Additionally, Truecallers noted that global users got over 8.6 billion spam texts in 2019. Regarding this, as can be seen from the chart below, India ranks eighth with 61 text messages per user per month.