Truecaller said the increase reflects both the growing volume and variety of attempts targeting South African consumers, as criminals increasingly use sophisticated tactics to deceive victims.
South African phone users were targeted by 17.47 billion spam calls between January and June 2026, according to caller identification and spam protection platform Truecaller.
The figure represents a 25.2% increase from the 13.96 billion spam calls recorded during the same period in 2025.
Truecaller said the increase reflects both the growing volume and variety of attempts targeting South African consumers, as criminals increasingly use sophisticated tactics to deceive victims.
These include callers impersonating bank fraud departments, caller ID spoofing and generative artificial intelligence being used to make scam conversations appear more convincing.
