Africa Faces Surge in Automated Spam Calls Driven by Telecom-Linked Systems
As digital communication expands across African markets, the same infrastructure that enables connectivity is also being increasingly exploited for large-scale unsolicited calls and scams.
A new report from Truecaller highlights a sharp rise in spam and automated fraud across Africa in 2025, describing the region as a growing hotspot for what it calls the “machine era” of spam calls. As digital communication expands across African markets, the same infrastructure that enables connectivity is also being increasingly exploited for large-scale unsolicited calls and scams.
The report measures “spam intensity” as the share of unknown calls identified as spam. Within this framework, Nigeria emerges as the most affected African country, with 51% of unknown calls flagged as spam, placing it among the highest globally. Ethiopia follows closely at 49%, indicating a similarly high exposure to unwanted automated or fraudulent calls. South Africa records a lower but still significant rate at 30%, while Kenya and Ghana show comparatively reduced levels at 15% and 11% respectively.
A notable feature of the African spam landscape is the dominance of telecom-related outreach. In Nigeria, for example, 35% of spam calls are linked to telecommunications activity, making it the leading category. Across the continent, the report notes that automated systems operated at carrier or large-scale network levels are increasingly responsible for high volumes of calls, often blurring the line between legitimate service notifications and spam.
In contrast to regions where financial scams or debt collection dominate, Africa’s spam ecosystem shows a stronger tilt toward telecom and service-based solicitation. South Africa presents a slightly different pattern, where insurance-related calls account for 14% of spam and financial services make up 10%, indicating a broader mix of commercial targeting strategies.
The report also highlights rapid user growth on Truecaller across the Middle East and Africa region, which surpassed 100 million monthly active users in late 2025. This surge reflects rising public concern over spam and fraud, as more people turn to community-based identification tools to screen unknown calls. Looking ahead to 2026, the report warns that spam operations are expected to become more sophisticated, potentially leveraging AI-generated voice calls and rapidly adapting scam scripts to evade detection and increase their reach.
