Truecaller, one of the leading communication apps in the world, today released findings from its annual Truecaller Insights report, which provides a look into the top 20 countries affected by spam calls and SMS in 2019. Egypt ranked in the top 20, coming in as the 20th most spammed country in the world. Egyptians receive an average of 7.9 spam calls per month compared to 5.5 spam calls per month in 2018, an increase of 43% based on 10.4 million active users.
The 2019 results for Egypt are less positive than the 2018 Truecaller Insight report in which Egypt fell out of the top 20 due to a significant surge in spam calls in Latin America and Europe that year. However, Egypt’s 2019 ranking is an improvement from the inaugural 2017 Truecaller Insight report in which Egypt ranked as the #1 most spammed country in the Middle East, with 99% of all spam originating from scammers, and 1% from telemarketers in 2017.
The 2019 results represent a shift in the primary spam source for Egypt from scammers to operators and telecom service providers looking to upsell various offers and balance reminders. Scam calls still comprise nearly one quarter of all spam calls in Egypt.
The spam trends in Egypt mirror those around the world with telco/operators ranking as the biggest spammers in the world, and scam calls on the rise globally.
Last year, Brazil overtook India as the most spammed country in the world, and as this year’s data shows, Brazil is still on top in 2019 and spam calls in the country have been increasing ever since.
So far in 2019, Truecaller has helped users block and identify 26 billion spam calls, an increase of 18% compared to last year. The app also helped identify 116 billion unknown calls this year which is a 56% increase compared to 2018.
This year Truecaller took a look at the trends of spam SMS around the world, and have been able to pinpoint the top 20 countries that receives the most spam SMS.
The data shows that the top countries that receives the most spam SMS are in the emerging markets. The top three markets that are affected are in the African continent. Ethiopians receives the most spam SMS in the world, with the average of 119 spam SMS on a monthly basis.
What other trends did Truecaller discover?
· 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 scam calls are on the rise globally, and spam calls from financial services are increasing.
· Spam calls in Latin America have been increasing dramatically over the years. This year, the trend is even more clear. The countries that are seeing the biggest increase of spam calls are in Latin America. Five out of the top 10 most affected markets are in that region.
· Peru has seen a significant increase of spam calls. Users are now getting on average 30.9 spam calls a month, making Peru the 2nd most spammed country in the world.
· The biggest increase of total spam calls comes from Indonesia. Last year Indonesia was ranked 16th, and this year the market jumped up to 3rd place, which makes it the biggest jump seen.
· The country that has witnessed the biggest increase of spam calls in percentage is Lebanon. Users in the market have seen an increase of spam calls going from 2.8 average spam calls/user to 8.6 – that is a 208% increase in a year.
· Although India has dropped to the 5th place (India used to be the top spammed country in the world), spam calls have been increasing by 15% over the year. Another devastating fact found during this year is that 1 out of 3 women in India receive sexual harassment or inappropriate calls and SMS on a regular basis.
· The U.S. continues to be in the top 10 list of the most spammed countries in the world. The market saw a 7% increase of spam calls compared to last year, when it was actually decreasing. Earlier this year another study conducted in the U.S. found that phone scams caused Americans to lose 10.5 billion dollars in 2018, and nearly 1 in every 6 American adults falls victim to scam calls.
· Telco/operators are still the biggest spammers in the world, and scam calls are on the rise globally.
· The top 5 markets to receive the most scam calls in the world are Malaysia (63%), Australia (60%), Lebanon (49%), Canada (48%), South Africa (39%).
The full report can be found here: https://truecaller.blog/2019/12/03/truecaller-insights:-top-20-countries-affected-by-spam-calls-&-sms-in-2019/
Graphics can be found here: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/c1zpsewr8xdwbb5/AAD8Uli4tQQao5HuA7tIjn_Ta?dl=0
