NEW DELHI: Delhi reported the highest number of harassment calls and messages received by women in the country on a weekly basis, with 28 per cent of them complaining of pesky callers and unwanted SMSes.Also, one out of every three women in the country continued to receive inappropriate calls and messages, according to a countrywide survey.
Conducted by Swedish caller identification app Truecaller between February 9 and 25, the survey took accounts from 2,150 women aged 15-35 across 14 cities in India. It was done on a smartphone interface, using a self-complete methodology ensuring short length of interview in an engaging format, Truecaller said in a statement.
The report, ‘Understanding Impact of Harassment Spam Calls & SMS for Women’, showed that of the over 2,000 surveyed participants, 52 per cent received unknown calls and messages with inappropriate content at least once a week.
As many as 74 per cent of calls received were from unknown people to the victim and a staggering 23 per cent calls were made by stalkers, followed by 11 per cent calls that were made from a person known to the user.
“Most women were also subjected to unprecedented phishing calls with 53 per cent of them receiving calls from fraudsters seeking to collect sensitive personal data once a week and 8 per cent receiving counterfeit calls almost daily,” Truecaller said in a statement.
Close to four-fifth (78 per cent) of the women reported feeling angry or irritated by harassment calls, while more than one-third felt troubled, worried or frightened. Furthermore, the survey also highlighted that three-fourths (74 per cent) of the women took measures against these calls through various means that included blocking numbers, request for DND activation, and filing complaints.
According to Truecaller, India receives the maximum number of spam calls in the world even as the average spam call received per users marginally dropped by 1.5 per cent compared to the last year. “Looking into this year’s breakdown of call categorization in India, there has been a substantial increase of spam calls, coming from operators, upselling various offers and balance reminders,” it said. “Also, it seems like scam calls has more than doubled compared to last year — from 3 per cent to 7 per cent...”
Stalkers and unknown people
The report showed 52% of the women surveyed received unknown calls and SMS with inappropriate content at least once a week. As many as 74% of the calls received were from unknown people to the victim and a staggering 23% calls were made by stalkers followed by 11% calls that were made from a person known to the user