The past week, social media has been abuzz with users in India complaining of missed calls from countries like Ethiopia (+251), Malaysia (+60), Indonesia (+62), Kenya (+254), Vietnam (+84) and many others.What’s important to note is that these code numbers do not necessarily mean that the calls are originating from these countries. According to multiple reports, agencies are selling these overseas numbers to local scammers.There is no information on who these callers are and why they use WhatsApp for this scam. It is not even clear how these calls can affect users and who is tracking them. In a latest, the company has partnered with Truecaller to bring its caller identification service over WhatsApp.
The service, according to a Reuters report will help users spot potential spam calls over the internet. Truecaller Chief Executive Alan Mamedi told Reuters that the feature is currently in beta phase. It will be rolled out globally later in May." Over the last two weeks, we have seen a spike in user reports from India about spam calls over WhatsApp," Mamedi said, noting that telemarketers switching to internet calling was fairly new to the market. As per a 2021 report by Truecaller, telemarketing and scamming calls have been on the rise in countries like India, where users gets about 17 spam calls per month on average. India's telecom regulator in February directed carriers like Jio and Airtel to start blocking telemarketing calls over their networks using artificial intelligence filters. Truecaller has said it is in discussions with telecom operators to implement such a solution. For Truecaller, India is its biggest market with 250 million users. It has 350 million users globally and earns its revenue from advertising, subscription services, and verified listings from businesses. WhatsApp is the most used messaging platform in India. The company says it uses spam detection technology to spot and take action on accounts engaging in abnormal behavior and lets users block and report problematic accounts.