Spam and telemarketing calls are one of the major frustrations experienced by cellular users in the modern age, with many South Africans receiving multiple unsolicited calls daily.
However, apps such as Truecaller, Hiya, and Call Control are available to the country’s residents, that can help them identify, avoid, and block spam calls.
South Africa’s Information Regulator has started cracking down on telemarketing calls in the country and issued its first enforcement notice resulting from a direct marketing complaint in late February 2024.
This comes after it was initially believed the Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA) does not apply to phone calls. However, the regulator said it received a legal opinion stating that it does.
The watchdog found that the recipient of the enforcement notice — FT Rams Consulting — had contravened various sections of the POPIA.
“The Regulator received a complaint from a data subject (a person about whom the personal information relates) following countless direct marketing messages received by them,” the regulator said.
“Regardless of the multiple attempts to opt out and requests to be removed from the company emailing list, FT Rams Consulting blatantly ignored the pleas from the data subject and continued to send them marketing messages on email.”
The enforcement notice instructs FT Rams Consulting to stop sending unsolicited direct marketing messages through any electronic communication method to which any data subject has not consented.
It must also ensure that the first communication they send to new recipients requests their consent. It can only approach each new contact once for this purpose.
FT Rams Consulting has 90 days to comply with the information regulators’ orders and provide proof that it has done so.
The Information Regulator has also identified several other potentially infringing telemarketing firms that it is investigating.
However, until major change occurs in the telemarketing space, South African residents will still likely receive these pesky unsolicited calls.
There are several platforms that can help identify, avoid, and block spam calls available to the country’s residents. We have listed three of the best with pricing and features below.
Truecaller
True Caller is a call-identifying and blocking app for Android and iOS, designed to notify you if a call is spam before you answer it.
The app’s basic functionality is free. However, this limits the number lookup functionality.
Alternatively, customers can subscribe to TrueCaller Premium for R19.99 per month or R99.99 a year.
There are three subscription tiers:
- Truecaller Premium Connect — R19.99 per month / R99.99 per year
- Turecaller Premium Assistant — R39.99 per month / R399.99 per year
- Truecaller Premium Gold — R1,499.99 per year
Connect offers a step up from the basic functionality, with no ads, daily spam protection, call recording, profile view information, and incognito mode.
Subscribing to Premium Assistant expands the functionality to include the Truecaller assistant, voicemail, and custom greeting recordings.
Gold expands on this further, adding live chat support and a Gold Caller ID.
Truecaller is currently rated 4.6 out of five stars on the Google Play Store and 4.4 out of five on the Apple App Store.
Hiya
Hiya is also available on Android and iOS in South Africa, with the platform’s primary objective being to identify robot and spam calls from a database of known spammers and scammers.
It also attempts to detect calls associated with fraud and other illegal activities. It currently serves more than 400 million users around the world.
Hiya offers free spam call-identifying functionality, including spam detection with daily updates on incoming calls, spam reporting, and blocking.
However, it also offers a Premium subscription that gives customers access to a broader range of features. These include:
- Premium Caller ID — premium subscribers get access to a database of up to 1.5 million caller IDs
- Daily spam updates — those on the premium plan will get three spam updates per day
- 200 monthly premium business and personal caller ID searches
South African users can subscribe to Hiya Premium for R69.99 per month or R439.99 per year. They will get access to a seven-day trial period to decide whether to continue with the paid subscription.
Hiya scores 4.2 out of five stars on the Google Play Store in South Africa and 4.0 out of five on the Apple App Store.
Call Control
Call Control is a crowdsourcing-driven spam call-detection and blocking app available to both iOS and Android users in South Africa.
It leverages a feature called “CommunityIQ”, which uses community reports and Do Not Call complaints to identify calls from spammers.
Its basic functionality includes identifying and blocking spam calls, number lookups, and the ability to connect a compatible landline to protect yourself from spam calls at home.
Signing up for Call Control’s Premium service expands the functionality to include:
- CommunityIQ Blocklist Protection
- Ten premium lookup credits per month
- Priority support
- No ads
South African users can choose from an annual or quarterly subscription, with the latter costing R154.99. The annual plan costs R469.99.
Call Control has a rating of 4.2 out of five stores on the Apple App Store in South Africa and 4.2 out of five on the Google Play Store.
Loading ...
Join the conversation Autoload comments
Comments section policy: MyBroadband has a new article comments policy which aims to encourage constructive discussions. To get your comments published, make sure it is civil and adds value to the discussion.