Indonesia Record Significant Increase in Spam Calls

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Indonesia sits on number six on the list of Truecaller Global Span Report for 2021. The list includes the top 20 countries affected by spam and Indonesia has become one of the two countries with more than double the increase in the volume of spam calls from January to October 2021.

"Millions of smartphone users in Indonesia have risks of being the victim of fraud because of spam calls," said Truecaller CEO and Co-Founder Alan Mamedi in a statement on Friday, December 17, 2021.

Fraudster aims for their target in Indonesia through scientific means and are often on target. They can even uncover detailed background information and financial records of the victim.

Their actions were supported by the lack of awareness from Indonesian citizens, which is proven by the fact that only one percent of blocked calls were flagged as fraud. Meanwhile, threats of scam calls continue to grow.

Alan said that Truecaller provides right the technology and skills to protect people from spam threats.

"[Truecaller] can help the Indonesian citizens to identify and understands how spam works, and to use that information to fight the threat of spam calls," Alan said.

Cyber security agency SOCRadar had also released its report on the landscape of cyberthreat in Indonesia, which highlights the increase of threats coming from the dark web. The report also highlights sales of databases containing private information of millions of Indonesians, which include name, phone number, birthday, ID number, and monthly salary.

For the spam call category, the highest number came from the financial services sector, while the second-highest comes from sales services.

Another important statistic is that Indonesia has become one of two countries (aside from Vietnam) in the list of 20 countries with the highest number of spam, which recorded more than double in the increase of spam call volume from January to October 2021.

In January, the total volume of reported spam calls reached up to 12.6 million. The number then increase to 25.8 million calls in October 2021. On average, an Indonesian citizen received 14 spam calls every month.

ANTARA