Truecaller spam detection – creating a safer environment for our users
Since 2017 we identified more than 38.7 million unique spam numbers.
Truecaller spam lists are created by our user community who choose to report unsolicited calls and SMS messages. By enabling the creation of a spam directory it helps our users to avoid:
- Fraud or criminal activity
- Abusive or obscene calls (to anyone but especially women)
- Crank calls
- Unsolicited telemarketing calls
- Robocalls
- Phone spam
- Scams (like pyramid schemes, tech-support scams, impersonation of financial institutions)
We consider that we have a legitimate interest to collect spam reports made voluntarily by our users to prevent fraud, crime, abuse, and unsolicited calls and messages. When users block messages they can choose to suggest a name of the business or person making the call or sending the message. We collect these reports over a period of time, and if there are multiple instances of a particular number being listed as spam by our user community, we designate the number as spam and share this information when there is an incoming spam call or SMS to our users.
If after a period of time the number of users reporting a number as spam falls below a threshold, then the number will be de-listed as spam. We only use information provided when a number is blocked for creating a spam directory and blocking the number on the relevant users’ device. When a number ceases to be designated as spam, all relevant information is deleted.