Data from Truecaller, a global caller identification and spam protection platform, shows that it identified 17.47 billion spam calls between January and June 2026. This was a 25.2% increase from the 13.96 billion spam calls recorded during the same period last year. Truecaller identified 3.71 billion spam messages in the first half of 2026, up 58.9% year-on-year. Despite the increase in scam attempts, fewer South Africans answered identified spam calls. She said the figures also show that South Africans are becoming better at identifying and avoiding suspicious calls.