South Africa has the fourth-highest number of spam calls in the world, according to new research from Truecaller.

South African Truecaller app users — of which there are 5.3 million — receive 21 spam calls a month on average, the company said on Tuesday. (Truecaller helps users block spam calls.)

This figure is up 71.4% compared to 2017’s number, suggesting unsolicited marketing calls are becoming a major problem in the country. The Truecaller Insights report looks at the top 20 countries worldwide affected by spam calls in 2018.

Only Brazil, India and Chile had more spam callers per user in 2018, the company said.

“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,” it said.

The most prominent pattern identified is that telecommunications operators across the world are the biggest spammers. Telemarketing calls from financial services firms (including insurers) and debt collectors are also spamming Truecaller 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. Telemarketing is still a persistent problem in South Africa, and accounts for 38% of all top spam calls in the country.

Scam calls

Scam-related calls are also on the rise worldwide, with almost half (49%) of all top spam calls being attempts to take money from people.

Scams include tech support fraud, where someone pretends to call from your bank or company informing you that your account has been hijacked and needs your help to take control of it, and the one-ring scam, where an unknown number (usually an international number) gives you a missed call and when you call them back you get charged a hefty fee for calling back. There’s also a job-offer scam, where someone pretending to be a head-hunter calls to offer you a job but you need to pay a fee in order to be hired. — © 2018 NewsCentral Media