When a call from an unknown number comes in, the dreaded label “Spam Risk”, eventually shows on your smartphone screen. Spam risk might show up in a number of ways, including social media spam, email spam, text message spam, and phone call spam.
Most of the time, automated systems or human beings send or create this call with the intention of promoting goods and services. They will also, frequently make an effort to contact you with negative or fraudulent intentions.
Although it’s something we’ve all experienced, do we really need to know what it means and why it’s so important? In this guideline, we will delve deep into the world of spam risk to reveal the threat it guards against and how you can stay safe!
What is Spam Risk?
The term “Spam Risk” is what your telecom might use to alert you to the possibility that the call is unsafe and threatening, whether it is a text message, an email, or a phone call. In short, when you receive an incoming call, your phone will show this tag to let you know that things might not be right.
Receiving spam risk calls can result in a variety of issues beyond just monetary losses. Scammers may attempt to trick you into giving personal information or try to offer you suspicious products. That’s why this label serves as a barrier to these dangers.
However, it should be noted that even if warnings about spam calls are accurate, they are not always perfect. Sometimes, a real call may be incorrectly labelled as spam. It’s a good idea to review your call history in the Phone app if you recently missed a crucial call from an unknown number that isn’t registered in your phone’s contacts.
By doing this, you may verify any recent caller IDs you might have missed.
How Do Phones Detect Spam Calls?
Have you ever thought about how your phone knows when to display the “Spam Risk” or “Spam Likely” label? All of this has been made possible by the advanced algorithms used by mobile carriers and machine learning. These algorithms scan the metadata in call detail records, which also include call durations and other information.
For example, a phone number might be reported as strange, if it makes an extremely high number of calls per day. Additionally, user reports are helpful in spotting fraudulent calls. And, nowadays, most smartphones let you report spam calls. It helps mobile carriers to enhance their spam risk detection technologies.
Is It Safe to Answer Spam Risk Calls?
Simply the answer is “No,” you shouldn’t. If you pick up the call, the scammers will regard your number as ‘good’, even if you don’t fall for the trick. The cybercriminals will definitely contact you again because they are aware that you might fall into their trap at some point in the near future. Mainly, you will find a fraudulent individual, telemarketer, or robot on the other end of the call.
Some of the typical scam call trends include medical emergencies, get-rich-quick ideas, student loans, vehicle warranty challenges, tax return scams, and banking fraud. In essence, if you answer these calls, your number can be seen as a potential victim by scammers. They might disguise foreign numbers as local ones so they can charge you for international calls.
Additionally, fraudsters may also record your voice and responses and use that as proof when lying to banks and service providers. Overall, there isn’t a good reason to pick up a Spam Risk call. It’s often safer to ignore spam calls altogether, even when advanced machine learning algorithms aren’t perfect and sometimes incorrectly label valid numbers.
To see if the number has been flagged as spam, you can always do a search online or use a few applications, like Truecaller.
How to Identify Spam Calls: 5 Ways to Know
We have a few pointers to help spot possibly misleading calls in order to further protect yourself. Let’s see one by one:
- You must turn on the spam protection feature to lessen the number of calls that are spam.
- When you feel about any number that they are using fraudulent methods, report it and block it.
- You have to become familiar with the common phishing techniques, so you can identify frauds right away.
- Don’t receive calls that are flagged as spam risks. Let them go to voicemail instead.
- You better avoid sharing personal information over the phone or by email.
How to Block Spam Risk Call
Now that we have understood the risks of spam calls, let’s move on to the way to stop it from ruining your day. The good news is that you can block these calls using features available on both iPhone and Android devices.
On iPhone Device:
- Go to the Settings.
- Visit Phone.
- Now, turn on “Silence Unknown Callers.”
When this option is enabled, all calls from unknown numbers will be sent to voicemail. On the flip side, you can still see them in your call log from numbers, even though they are being blocked from calling you.
On Android Device:
- First, make sure “Phone by Google” is your phone’s default app.
- Launch the app and hit the three-dot icon.
- Choose “Spam and Call Screen.”
- Now, search for the option, “See caller & spam ID” and turn on “Filter spam calls”.
By turning on this feature, you may boost your Android device’s built-in spam protection. You can use this feature to get details like who is calling and their reason for doing so. This will allow you to figure out if a call is actually spam or not because spam risk labels are not always 100% correct.
Final Thought
It’s time to conclude this article, spam risk serves as your protector from unwanted and potentially dangerous calls. With its advanced technology, it can help you stay away from being a victim of fraud and safeguard your personal information. Additionally, you can boost your defence against the constant threat of spam calls by following the above-mentioned advice.
Stay alert, and keep protecting yourself from scammers and telemarketers.