Kenyan mobile subscribers received the third-highest number of spam SMS in the world per user, insights by smartphone caller-identification platform Truecaller have shown.
The insights show that a Kenyan subscriber receives an average of 102 spam messages per month. This is in contrast with 114 SMS for a subscriber in South Africa and 119 for one in Ethiopia.
This is the first time for Kenya to feature in the top 20 list of countries affected by spam text messages since Truecaller started sharing the insights in 2017.
Truecaller said promotional calls and text messages from telcos and banks pushing sales, fraudsters out to swindle people and debt collectors chasing after loan defaulters were among the key causes of a rise in spams SMS globally.
“Our data shows that the top countries that receive the most spam SMS are in the emerging markets. The top three markets that are affected are in the African continent,” said Truecaller in an update covering 2019.
Kenyans owned 52.2 million SIM cards as at end of June, translating to a SIM card penetration level of 109.2 percent, data from Communications Authority of Kenya (CA) shows.
The Truecaller application was developed by a Swedish firm, True Software Scandinavia AB, and released in July 2009. It relies on the Internet for caller-identification, call-blocking, flash-messaging and call-recording services for registered users.
The application identified 8.6 billion spam SMS globally coming from 199 million spam numbers. Other African countries in top 20 spammed countries were Nigeria (65 SMS per month per user), Tunisia (28), Egypt (26), Morocco (23) Algeria (22) and Ghana with 18.
The report further gives a breakdown of the top 20 countries affected by spam calls.
Kenya did not feature here as it was in 2017 when subscribers received an average of 7.7 spam calls per month to rank 20th most affected country globally.
“We can see a significant shift in which countries that get the most spam calls, and it is clear that this problem is not slowing down, at all,” said the report.
The application noted a curious case of 109 million calls by just one spammer in India and another 13 million calls by one spammer in Nigeria.
Truecaller said it identified and blocked 26 billion spam calls globally, which is an increase of 18 percent compared to last year.
It further identified 56 percent growth in unknown calls to 116 billion.
“The phone has almost become an extended part of our body, and we use it to communicate with the rest of the world.
“The frightening part is we’re always accessible because of it, and this is something that spammers and scammers take advantage of,” said Truecaller.
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