Ever received a call from a familiar number only to have someone on the other side sell you something you don’t need. Or how about a more sinister call that asks you to come over to the police station over an investigation over a hit and run case where your name and contact details were used. (this happened to this writer)
Spam and scam calls are more prevalent when our personal data becomes more accessible for bad actors to take advantage of, its is reported unwanted spam calls are on the rise around the globe, and the situation is no different in Malaysia. In fact, Malaysia is being more affected than its neighbouring countries. Truecaller an app service that allows users to monitor and screen such unwanted calls and have them blocked, recently published a report revealing Malaysia as being high on the spam scale with an average of 7 spam calls each month using the app, compared to 4 spam calls monthly in Singapore and Thailand.
Globally, there are a number of common categories that tie all spam calls together, with some of the most common being unsolicited finance and insurance product offerings along with telemarketing and debt collection calls. Other unwanted calls include operator nuisance and scam calls.
One major driver of spam calls in Malaysia are financial services that account for 67% of spam calls. Typically, these are banking product offers or cold calls from credit card companies. Another major spam call problem that Malaysians have to deal with is telemarketing calls at 13% of total spam calls. Telemarketing calls can further be broken down into promotional calls from companies, surveys being done by analytics firms on behalf of their clients, or new client outreach for services and subscriptions.
There are ways of course to guard oneself from such nuisance, the Personal Data Protection Act enables consumers to officially write to any company from using their contact details for marketing purpose. And if they fail to comply they can be liable for RM200,000 fine or jailed for two years. The other option is downloading a call screening app like Truecaller, used by over 250 million users the app notifies who’s calling and block the calls as well as SMS and report spam callers and messages.
No more scary phone calls asking you to visit police stations or buying insurance plans for your pets.
(app is available on both iOS and Android, paid service)
