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SA one of the top five spam-plagued countries

Johannesburg - Truecaller, the company behind the software which identifies incoming mobile calls, has revealed women receive more unwanted calls than men - and they report them.

The findings were reported in the light of International Women’s Day on March 8.

The insights also revealed that South African women are receiving 6% more spam calls than men and also reporting 4% more spam calls.

South Africa was also identified as one of the top five spam-plagued countries in the world. The majority of these spam calls come from telemarketing, which leads the way with 39%; financial institutions make up 24% and insurance-related calls account for 13%. 

The company said that women who use the app, available for smartphones from the Android and iOS stores, ensure their harassers are on the spam list by reporting 19% more of unwanted calls than men. 

Truecaller said that the trend could be for various reasons, but the same is happening in many other regions around the globe.

The report stated that when a woman receives an unwanted call or SMS, she is more likely to try and help other people avoid the harasser by reporting the number to Truecaller. 

Truecaller also found that in some countries men were receiving more spam calls than women, but women were taking more action to report more unwanted calls than men. 

For example, men in Kenya receive 15% more unwanted calls than women monthly, but women are reporting 11% more unwanted calls than men.

When a number in Truecaller is reported a certain amount of times by various users, it can be auto-blocked for all Truecaller users and will show the number of times the number has been reported. 

Truecaller said this can help women users refrain from picking up a call from an unknown number, and it can also help all users stay clear of potential scams, frauds and various kinds of bullying or harassment.

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