How does spam detection happen on the Truecaller app?

Truecaller spam lists are created by our user community which chooses to report unsolicited calls and SMS messages. By enabling the creation of a spam directory it helps our users to avoid:

• Fraud or criminal activity

• Abusive or obscene calls

• Crank calls

• Unsolicited telemarketing calls

• Robocalls

• Phone spam

• Scams (like pyramid schemes, tech-support scams, impersonation of financial institutions)

We consider that we have a legitimate interest to collect spam reports made voluntarily by our users to prevent fraud, crime, abuse, and unsolicited calls and messages. When users block calls or messages, they can choose to suggest the name of the business or person making the call or sending the message. We collect these reports over a period of time, and if there are multiple instances of a particular number being listed as spam by our user community, we designate the number as spam and share this information when there is an incoming spam call or SMS to our users.

Apart from blocking and marking numbers as spam, Truecaller also allows users to inform us if the activity associated with a number is not spam. Our algorithms also factor in these positive feedbacks while evaluating if a number needs to be shown as spam/not spam to the rest of the Truecaller user base.