Truecaller denies whitelisting fees amid SA spam complaints

Cape Talk's Lester Kiewit chats to Hitesh Bhagat, Global Head of Corporate Communications at Truecaller.

Listen below:

Truecaller, the popular caller ID and spam-blocking app, is in the spotlight in South Africa following complaints from businesses and marketers, who claim the platform is damaging their reputations and livelihoods.

RELATED: Truecaller being investigated by SA’s information regulator

Some local internet providers and marketers allege that Truecaller unfairly flags legitimate business numbers as spam, potentially scaring off customers, and then allegedly charges a hefty fee of $590 a month to 'whitelist' those numbers. 

Truecaller has firmly denied offering any form of paid whitelisting.

"There is no whitelist... if any person or entity spams Truecaller users and they, in turn, report it as a spammer, it will be marked as a spammer no matter what.”

- Hitesh Bhagat, Global Head of Corporate Communications - Truecaller

“ It's Truecaller's job to essentially protect people from unwanted communication and we are always going to uphold that promise, so we consider ourselves the voice of the people. We allow them to choose who is a spammer and who is not. Truecaller is not deciding this."

- Hitesh Bhagat, Global Head of Corporate Communications - Truecaller

Bhagat confirms that Truecaller is cooperating with the Information Regulator, but dismisses the accusations as “completely false.” 

He explains that the platform relies on crowdsourced user input to determine whether a number is flagged as spam. 

"Essentially, Truecaller is powered by the community of users - the very people who download and use Truecaller - they are the ones who report names, numbers, spammers and scammers to Truecaller. “

- Hitesh Bhagat, Global Head of Corporate Communications - Truecaller

“ If we look at the primary complaint - people who are raising complaints that their numbers are being flagged, which in turn causes harm to their business and then in turn that there are some fees which we charge businesses allegedly... this is completely false. Businesses cannot pay Truecaller for any sort of whitelisting services."

- Hitesh Bhagat, Global Head of Corporate Communications – Truecaller

"The fee that you speak of is something called Truecaller for Business service. It allows businesses to verify their business name; it includes a logo with their Truecaller profile... essentially, it's a verified business badge. What it does is, it adds trust to the communication between a business and their own customers. If I receive a call that is verified by Truecaller, I can be certain that it is that particular business."

- Hitesh Bhagat, Global Head of Corporate Communications – Truecaller

Bhagat notes that businesses can still be marked as spam, even if they’re verified.

He emphasises that Truecaller’s mission is to empower users and restore trust in communication, especially in countries like South Africa, which ranks among the most spammed globally. 

RELATED: South African telemarketers say Truecaller is killing business

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