1 out 3 women face harassment on call, says Truecaller
What's the story
Truecaller has released its annual insights report, giving a glimpse at how spammers have been targeting India and other countries. The report, which is the third edition from Truecaller, has been created using the data collected by the company and shows that both spam calls and messages have grown staggeringly, particularly in our country. Here's all you need to know about it.
Spam calls
India is 5th most affected country by spam calls
Spam calls and messages are incredibly annoying, and they both have increased drastically. The volume of calls, in particular, has grown by as much as 18% around the world. Brazil is the most affected nation while India sits as the 5th most-affected one where every citizen gets around 25.6 calls every month on an average - a 15% increase over last year.
Details
Telecom companies behind most spam calls
The data, which was collected from incoming calls marked spam by users or flagged by Truecaller between January and October 2019, also shows that telecom companies were behind as many as 67% of the spam calls received by Indians. Meanwhile, telemarketing and fintech service companies were behind 17% and 10% calls respectively, while scammers made up the remaining 6%.
Information
Women harassment a major issue, says Truecaller
In addition to the spam call stats, Truecaller also revealed that people have been targeting women via calls. The company says that one out of three women in India has to deal with sexual harassment or inappropriate calls/messages from time to time.
Spam texts
Spam messages have also increased drastically
Like calls, spam messages are also said to have increased drastically worldwide. However, in this case, Truecaller's list mentions India as the 8th most-affected country with every user receiving around 61 spam messages every month on an average. Notably, Ethiopia, South Africa, and Kenya were the top 3 victims of spam messages, as their citizens receive over 100 spam messages every month.
Solution
How can you cut spam?
As these figures paint a scary picture, we'd recommend getting a dedicated caller-ID program, like Truecaller, to stay away from potential spammers. It will automatically flag an alert when there is an incoming call from a spammer, helping you stay clear of the call and the caller. Additionally, you also get the option of blocking callers, which means no more harassment on call.