{"id":653245,"date":"2026-06-10T12:33:45","date_gmt":"2026-06-10T10:33:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/?p=653245"},"modified":"2026-06-10T12:33:48","modified_gmt":"2026-06-10T10:33:48","slug":"south-africa-has-a-spam-call-crisis-and-your-family-is-on-the-front-line","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/industrynews\/653245-south-africa-has-a-spam-call-crisis-and-your-family-is-on-the-front-line.html","title":{"rendered":"South Africa Has a Spam Call Crisis \u2013 And Your Family Is On The Front Line"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>If you&#8217;ve noticed that your parents or grandparents seem to answer every call \u2013 even the dodgy ones \u2013 you&#8217;re not alone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.truecaller.com\/?utm_source=MyBroadband&amp;utm_medium=Article&amp;utm_term=June+2026\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Get Family Protection by Truecaller<\/a>.<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>South Africa ranked 9th in the world for spam call intensity in 2025, according to the latest Truecaller <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/drive.google.com\/file\/d\/1IfhDngjTmIkNFle6RJb7EJlJeGbhHwck\/view?utm_source=MyBroadband&amp;utm_medium=Article&amp;utm_term=June+2026\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Global Insights Report<\/a><\/strong>, with nearly 30% of all unknown calls identified as spam, and an unprecedented 14 billion spam calls being identified from January to May 2026 alone (a 23% year-on-year increase).<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The Problem Isn&#8217;t Just the Volume \u2013 It&#8217;s Who Gets Targeted<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Most users know how to spot a scam call.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>They&#8217;ve seen the spoofed numbers, heard the \u201cyour account has been suspended\u201d scripts, and learned to hang up fast.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>But what about the people in your family who haven&#8217;t?<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Elderly parents who grew up trusting that a phone call meant something important; kids who don&#8217;t yet know to be suspicious; the family member who always answers because they&#8217;re worried it might be an emergency.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>These are the people scammers are counting on, and, until now, there wasn&#8217;t much the more tech-inclined members of a family could do to help them, short of confiscating their phones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Meet Family Protection: The Family IT Person Just Got Superpowers<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Truecaller&#8217;s Family Protection is built for exactly this scenario.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Available on both Android and iPhone, it lets up to five people form a trusted family group with a designated Family Admin who can actively manage spam protection for the whole group.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Think of it as making the unofficial family tech support role official, and then equipping it actual tools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Family Admin can:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Set and update protection levels for each family member<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Manage shared blocklists: block verified businesses, foreign numbers, hidden numbers<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Receive live fraud alerts when a family member is on a suspicious call (Android)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Remotely end suspicious calls to family members (Android)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>See real-time status: battery level, phone activity, and whether someone is available (Android)<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Receive low battery alerts and view weekly reports (Android)<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>The level of functionality depends on the family member&#8217;s device.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Android users get the full suite, including the ability for the Admin to remotely end a suspicious call.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>iPhone users get a solid core experience \u2013 shared blocklist management and auto-block spam (for Premium users) \u2013 with some limitations due to iOS system restrictions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">Free To Use \u2013 With A Premium Upgrade for The Serious Stuff<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Family Protection is a free feature, built directly into the Truecaller app.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>No extra download, no separate account.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For families who want deeper protection, Truecaller Premium Family adds advanced spam blocking, automatic rejection of high-risk numbers, an ad-free experience, and caller name blocking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>It&#8217;s the natural upgrade for a household that has decided to take the spam problem seriously.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\">South Africa Is Fighting Back \u2013 And Winning<\/h2>\n\n\n\n<p>Despite the scale of the problem, South Africa is also one of Africa&#8217;s top markets for blocked calls: 11.3 billion blocked in 2025, and 6 billion from January to May 2026 alone \u2013 up 58% year-on-year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>That&#8217;s the result of more South Africans actively reporting spam and using protection tools.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Every spam report feeds a real-time intelligence network.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When you flag a spammer or scammer, you&#8217;re helping protect millions of others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Truecaller calls it \u201cdigital neighbourhood watch\u201d, and the numbers show it works.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>\u201cThis isn\u2019t a uniquely South African trend, but it shows that spam in our market is not only about fraud, it&#8217;s also about aggressive, high-volume outreach that erodes trust in legitimate communication. When people stop answering their phones, the entire communication ecosystem breaks down.&#8221; \u2013 Mmathebe Zvobwo, Director of Market Development for South Africa, Truecaller<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>With spam calls reaching unprecedented levels in South Africa, having a shared, active defence is no longer optional; it&#8217;s essential.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Family Protection turns that defence into something you can set up immediately for everyone you care about.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.truecaller.com\/?utm_source=MyBroadband&amp;utm_medium=Article&amp;utm_term=June+2026\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Get Family Protection by Truecaller<\/a>.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>New data shows nearly 1 in 3 unknown calls in SA is spam. Truecaller&#8217;s Family Protection gives the more tech-savvy person in your family the tools to protect everyone else.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341030,"featured_media":653251,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28937],"tags":[104014,35997,43552,105816,104432],"class_list":["post-653245","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-industrynews","tag-mmathebe-zvobwo","tag-spam-calls","tag-truecaller","tag-truecaller-family-plan","tag-truecaller-premium"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653245"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/341030"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=653245"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653245\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":653256,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/653245\/revisions\/653256"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/653251"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=653245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=653245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=653245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}