Truecaller launches scam link and message verification service in India — TechCrunch
Swedish company Truecaller has launched a free Scam Checker service in India to check suspicious phone numbers, links and messages. The tool is available on the web and Android without installing an app or logging in, TechCrunch reports.
Users can paste a number, link or message text to check whether it may be associated with fraud. The service displays relevant scam reports from the ScamFeed community. At the same time, expanded data about a phone number, including the name associated with it, remain available only in the main Truecaller service after logging into an account.
How the verification works
Scam Checker expands shortened URLs and follows redirects to the final resource. The links are then checked against Truecaller’s own risk database and other signals of potential fraud. If a user adds the text of a suspicious message, the system can extract a phone number or link from it and display related scam reports from the community.
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According to the company, about 20,000 scam reports have currently been published in India’s ScamFeed, with approximately 1,300 new ones added every week. Truecaller also said that from September 14 to 20, it assessed 12.9 billion messages worldwide and flagged 20.3 million of them as fraudulent.
Expansion beyond Caller ID
Initially, Scam Checker will operate in India, and Truecaller later plans to expand it to Latin America, the Middle East, Africa and Southeast Asia. The company also intends to add new types of scam schemes that the service will be able to recognize, as well as the ability to upload screenshots for analysis.
The launch comes amid pressure on Truecaller’s core business in India, where the company has more than 350 million users. Telecom operators are introducing a federally backed caller name display service, while Apple and Google are adding their own call identification and spam protection features. Truecaller estimates that users conduct around 14 million web searches for suspicious links and phone numbers each month.
