Cellular22.05.2023

How to stop spam callers

By Staff Writer

South Africans can take several measures to minimize the amount of spam calls and unsolicited marketing they are regularly bombarded with.

In 2021, Truecaller’s Global Spam & Scam Report found that South Africa had the 9th-highest rate of spam calls in the world. That was a massive jump from 17th place in 2020.

The popular call-screening app found that South Africans received an average of 13.2 monthly spam calls per user.

Recruitment firm Pnet recently revealed that one of the most in-demand jobs in South Africa was telemarketing, an indication that South Africans shouldn’t expect a miraculous drop in such calls without drastic intervention.

Two pieces of legislation govern consumer rights regarding direct marketing — the Consumer Protection Act (CPA) and the Protection of Personal Information Act (POPIA).

Firstly, the CPA makes it unlawful for companies to market directly to consumers who have opted out of receiving such communication.

According to LawForAll, direct marketing is defined as any of the following:

A form of either personal or electronic communication;
To promote any goods or services, or;
Requesting a consumer to donate something.

The CPA also imposes strict rules about when consumers may be contacted for direct marketing.

The current legislation dictates that direct marketers may not contact consumers at home on weekdays between 20:00 and 08:00 the following morning, on Saturdays before 09:00 and after 13:00, or any time on Sundays or public holidays.

Secondly, POPIA forbids the sending of unsolicited marketing to consumers.

Entities are not allowed to contact you unless you opt-in to receiving such communication, or if you are an existing customer and they are sending you information about related products.

Armed with the knowledge of these regulations, below are five ways to avoid or stop spam calls.

Prevention is better than cure

The first way to avoid spam calls and other unsolicited marketing is to read the fine print thoroughly whenever your personally identifiable information is being captured.

While most of us have the habit of simply signing off on agreements as they can be long and arduous to read through, you might unknowingly be granting permission to use your information for direct marketing.

In some cases, it might also allow them to provide personal data to partners, associated companies, or third parties.

Ensure that any checkboxes that grant the entity permission to use your details for marketing or allow them to contact you to promote their products, services, or partners are left empty.

A dark pattern some companies use is to require you to check a box to opt out of receiving direct marketing. Make sure to read and understand the form before leaving such boxes blank.

The National Opt-out Register

The Direct Marketing Association of South Africa (DMASA) is one entity representing telemarketers that is trying to do things by the book.

The organization offers a National Opt-Out Register that lets you submit your personal details online. Doing so will inform DMASA members that you must not be contacted for marketing-related communication.

It should be noted that an opt-out is only valid for three years, after which you will have to resubmit your information.

This route is only beneficial if the companies spamming you are DMASA members.

If they are and continue to harass you with direct marketing after the six-week waiting period, you can report them to the National Consumer Commission.

Avoid loyalty programmes and free public Wi-Fi

Loyalty programmes and free public Wi-Fi networks might appear to be a form of charity or goodwill from the company providing it, but this is far from the truth.

Both are actually big data-gathering mechanisms that can help companies learn more about their customers and their habits for advertising purposes.

Often, using free public Wi-Fi networks is not possible without opting in to direct marketing and providing your contact details.

While it might not always work, you can sometimes bypass this by using a made-up name, cellphone number, and email address.

Naturally, don’t use other people’s details when you do this, as they will have to endure the harassment you have avoided. Providing someone else’s details may also be a crime.

An app a day can keep spammers at bay

There are several call-screening apps available on the Apple App Store and Google Play Store. These rely on their own extensive databases, often built from user submissions, to put a name to a number that’s not in your phone book.

As mentioned earlier, one of the most popular options is Truecaller.

Truecaller’s big benefit is that it sources details about callers from its large customer base — effectively acting like a distributed phone book.

It also supports call and SMS spam blocking and allows you to report any numbers that have not been added to its database.

The app’s developers recently announced they would start supporting integration with WhatsApp, so Truecaller will soon protect users against spammers on the popular chat app as well.

Editorial credit: sdx15 / Shutterstock.com

Report spammers to the police

Unfortunately, some rogue companies will not abide by the CPA, POPIA, or generally act in good faith when it comes to direct marketing.

If you have exhausted all the options above and a certain party continues to harass you, you can report the matter to the police.

The Regulation of Interception of Communications Act, otherwise known as RICA, is supposed to make it possible for the police to track down perpetrators through their cell phone numbers.