WhatsApp to partner with Truecaller to end the menace of spam calls

For Truecaller, India is its biggest market with 250 million users. It has 350 million users globally and earns its revenue from advertising, and subscription services

Truecaller is expected to soon start making its caller identification services available over WhatsApp and other messaging apps to help users spot potential spam calls over the internet, the company told Reuters on Monday. This comes at a time when an increased number of calls have been disturbing users. A lot of these calls are made by scamsters who use WhatsApp to commit financial fraud.

The feature, currently in the beta phase, will be rolled out globally later in May, Truecaller Chief Executive Alan Mamedi said.

Telemarketing and scamming calls have been on the rise in countries like India, where users get about 17 spam calls per month on average, according to a 2021 report by Truecaller.

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.

"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.

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 behaviour and lets users block and report problematic accounts.

WhatsApp has emerged as a cost-effective method for these spammers to make international calls using the internet, which otherwise costs significantly more if done using a cellular network. Moreover, since WhatsApp offers end-to-end encryption for calls and messages, it is difficult to identify such individuals.

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.

(With agency inputs)