No one likes getting spam calls. I mean, it’s a plain nuisance. If it’s not a robo-call, then it’s an actual human telemarketer, and if it’s not that, then you’re sure as hell getting scammed by someone who’s apparently from Pos Malaysia or Polis Diraja Malaysia or something, you get my point.

A popular deterrent to spam calls Truecaller, a mobile app that helps to block unwanted calls by crowd-sourcing unwanted numbers from other users who have downloaded the app to give you a better idea of who’s really calling you. The app has just recently revealed it’s Truecaller Insights for 2019, which delve into the the top 20 countries affected by spam calls and SMS and surprise, surprise, Malaysia is in the top 20!

Number 19 to be exact, but it still doesn’t read for good numbers. The number of spam calls in the country has actually increased by 24% in 2019 alone. With over 1 million Malaysian users of Truecaller, the company claims to have blocked 90 million spam calls thus far, and the year isn’t even really over yet! The average number of spam calls received per month in Malaysia is 8.3, which doesn’t sound so bad but is actually, quite bad.

Malaysia actually receives the biggest percentage of scam calls in the world, with a whopping 63% classified as fraudulent. Of course, with the ‘Astro’ and ‘Macau’ scams that have been rife over the past year, this is no surprise.

On a global scale, Latin American countries make up for 5 of the top 10 countries with Brazil taking the top spot  with an average of 45.6 spam calls per month.

Be wary of scams out there, people! Or better yet, download Truecaller.