Telecom operators made most spam calls in 2020: Truecaller report

Fifty-two percent of the total spam calls received by Indians in 2020 came from the telecom operators themselves, according to the latest Truecaller report.

As per the Global Spam Trend report, telecom operators made 52 percent spam calls, followed by telemarketers (34 percent), scammers (9 percent), and financial services (5 percent).

Interestingly, 98.5 percent of these spam calls came from domestic numbers. Maharashtra, Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh are the most spammed states in the country.

The report explains that strict curfews and lockdowns in the country have made it tough for telemarketers to carry out large scale campaigns — part reason why the total number of spam calls have dropped in the country.

The study revealed that scammers had taken advantage of the pandemic — India has witnessed a rise in KYC and OTP related scams.

"The scammers try to hook unsuspecting people using either phone calls or SMS, and the tactic is always the same: they will try to get you to give up sensitive information about your financials or force you to you reveal a secret OTP with the ultimate aim of extracting money from your bank accounts or digital wallets," Truecaller noted in the report.

India, a country that received the most spam calls three years ago, has seen a 34 percent reduction in the number of spam calls in 2020, even as the spam calls increased 3 percent compared annually.

And while India has dropped to the ninth position in the global spam list, it still makes it into the top 10 most spammed countries.

Brazil is the most affected country in the world right now, with the US following closely behind.

The study witnessed another interesting pattern, it noted: "Just like us, spammers take time off from work on weekends, as can be seen in a global weekly reduction of spam calls on those days.