TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Research from Hiya, a voice security solutions firm from the United States, revealed that Indonesian citizens receive an average of 16 spam calls per month. Indonesia ranks second in the Asia Pacific region, following behind Hong Kong residents, who receive an average of 21 calls.
"Voice spam and fraud is a global problem, impacting nearly every mobile phone user," reads one part of Hiya's report, published in the first quarter of 2025.
The percentage of unknown number spam flag rate calls received by individuals in Indonesia, according to the research, reached 89 percent. The report titled 'Global Call Threat Report Insights: into today's worldwide spam problem Q1 2025' also defines spam calls as potential fraud or connections for various offers and the like.
Hiya details that 11 percent of unidentified calls in Indonesia were flagged as nuisance calls, 44 percent as fraud calls, while the remaining 45 percent were related to other needs. In this assessment, Indonesia has the highest percentage, followed by Hong Kong with 70 percent and the Philippines with 50 percent.
For the Southeast Asian region, the country with the lowest average monthly spam calls is Singapore, with only about 3 calls per person. There are also Malaysia and Thailand with 4 calls per person.
Hiya's management said the data is derived from Samsung Smart Call users in January-March 2025. However, the company did not disclose the sample size of the data processed.
To anticipate these spam calls, Hiya suggests that users activate smart call filtering features on their devices. Users also need to be wary of AI-based synthetic voice and the common modes and patterns used by fraudsters. Operators are also advised to provide protection for customers that can block fraud calls or label spam calls.