Whatsapp: Getting Random Messages/Video calls from International nos.

MrdK

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Sep 16, 2020
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As long as your friends and relatives are using Truecaller, it doesn't matter whether you install this app on your phone or not. End result is the same - Truecaller has your number and other details that your friends/relatives have saved against your contact number.

Even banking apps have access to your contact list. You too are unknowingly passing on other people's details to such companies.
Yes, that is the biggest threat.
 

lockhrt999

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Aug 22, 2011
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Even banking apps have access to your contact list. You too are unknowingly passing on other people's details to such companies.
Sharing contacts with truecaller is understandable. But never ever share contacts with banking apps. These are dogs. They'll torture your relatives and friends.
 
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ibose

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Jun 20, 2009
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Some ray of hope...

Yet whatsapp is galaxies behind Telegram...
WTF !! So all Whatsapp numbers will now also be available in the Truecaller database ? Time to move to a dumb phone.
 

Agnes L

Truecaller staff
Recruit
Dec 14, 2022
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WTF !! So all Whatsapp numbers will now also be available in the Truecaller database ? Time to move to a dumb phone.
Hey, Agnes from Truecaller here to clarify.

We are not partnering up with WhatsApp. This is an enhancement of our Caller ID where we'll be able to identify unknown numbers coming in from other messaging apps - like WhatsApp.
That way we'll be able to warn you about a potential scam even if it's coming in from another app. It will work even if the call is coming in from other countries - like Indonesia as we've noticed an increase in scam calls coming from there.

The feature is in beta right now. Let me know if you have any more questions or want me to clarify the weirdness in that you still think we upload contacts even though that would be in direct violation of Google Play and Apple Appstore guidelines and our app would be long gone. ;)
 

enthusiast29

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Jan 15, 2021
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Hey, Agnes from Truecaller here to clarify.
Agnes Adolfsson Lindberg, Director of Product Marketing at Truecaller? Are you for real?

I never expected someone from the inside to come here and answer. How'd you even end up finding this forum, even more so back in Dec 2022?
And never posted here since... This being your first post here.

Or, have AIs come this far? o_O @Crazy_Eddy tagging for mod visibility.
 
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Agnes L

Truecaller staff
Recruit
Dec 14, 2022
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15
6
Agnes Adolfsson Lindberg, Director of Product Marketing at Truecaller? Are you for real?

I never expected someone from the inside to come here and answer. How'd you even end up finding this forum, even more so back in Dec 2022?
And never posted here since... This being your first post here.

Or, have AIs come this far? o_O @Crazy_Eddy tagging for mod visibility.
Yup for real, all the way from Sweden. Not AI. Nice to meet you!

I try to follow conversations just to see how we can build smarter features for anyone using Truecaller. And this latest development with our ability to identify other messaging apps have started the rumour about a partnership. So didn't want that to continue spreading. Happy to chat!
 

ibose

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Jun 20, 2009
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Hey, Agnes from Truecaller here to clarify.

We are not partnering up with WhatsApp. This is an enhancement of our Caller ID where we'll be able to identify unknown numbers coming in from other messaging apps - like WhatsApp.
That way we'll be able to warn you about a potential scam even if it's coming in from another app. It will work even if the call is coming in from other countries - like Indonesia as we've noticed an increase in scam calls coming from there.

The feature is in beta right now. Let me know if you have any more questions or want me to clarify the weirdness in that you still think we upload contacts even though that would be in direct violation of Google Play and Apple Appstore guidelines and our app would be long gone. ;)
Wow, I did not realize that we had Truecaller staff among us. Great to have you here, clarifying.
So what you are saying is - if anyone has TC installed, the app will intercept a Whatsapp call to read the number, map it to your Caller ID database and show the info ?
 

Agnes L

Truecaller staff
Recruit
Dec 14, 2022
6
15
6
Wow, I did not realize that we had Truecaller staff among us. Great to have you here, clarifying.
So what you are saying is - if anyone has TC installed, the app will intercept a Whatsapp call to read the number, map it to your Caller ID database and show the info ?
Happy to be here!
Yes, let me break it down a bit.
  • If we get a match on the number, it means that we either have saved information, e.g., name, or we assign it an attribute, such as spam (does not mean we know the name) or search context (we have signals indicating that the number belongs to a business; does not mean we have the name).
  • By conducting a search on the number, it will be saved in our internal search events. We will see which user received an incoming WhatsApp call and which number it was, as well as log where our response back to the client (app) went.
But there is a difference between saving things in an event and saving them in our name database, which is not happening in this case.
 

nRiTeCh

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Hey, Agnes from Truecaller here to clarify.

We are not partnering up with WhatsApp. This is an enhancement of our Caller ID where we'll be able to identify unknown numbers coming in from other messaging apps - like WhatsApp.
That way we'll be able to warn you about a potential scam even if it's coming in from another app. It will work even if the call is coming in from other countries - like Indonesia as we've noticed an increase in scam calls coming from there.

The feature is in beta right now. Let me know if you have any more questions or want me to clarify the weirdness in that you still think we upload contacts even though that would be in direct violation of Google Play and Apple Appstore guidelines and our app would be long gone. ;)
Hey Agnes,
Welcome to the forum!

Seem truly unreal to me as well like others that someone from the brand has joined us here.

I feel glad I opened this thread to discuss on this nasty issue and you happen to look into and take cognizance of this frustrating issue.

Just to clarify do we actually need to have Truecaller application installed on our phones or the updated Whatsapp will be having some inbuilt feature?
 
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ibose

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Just to clarify do we actually need to have Truecaller application installed on our phones or the updated Whatsapp will be having some inbuilt feature?
I believe she is saying that you will need to have Truecaller application installed and probably permit it to access Whatsapp call information (?) in order for this to work.

PS : Since I use Whatsapp purely for messaging, I disabled its phone permission. Not sure if that will stop those pesky calls though.
 

lockhrt999

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I believe she is saying that you will need to have Truecaller application installed and probably permit it to access Whatsapp call information (?) in order for this to work.
Yes. This is probably correct. TC already could identity the whatsapp message senders from the notification panel sometime ago. No idea, if this feature is still present.

Anyway, as per the news, the feature is coming by this month end. We'll see.
 

MrdK

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Sep 16, 2020
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TC is already recognizing whatsapp callers for me since last year. But only Indian nos.
Really? It is new information for me.

Also, in future TrueCaller will be integrated into the Whatsapp as per the TC staff above? Is that what she saying?
 

ibose

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Also, in future TrueCaller will be integrated into the Whatsapp as per the TC staff above? Is that what she saying?
No.
 
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imad7x

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Sep 9, 2021
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And I'm 110% sure Truecaller is the main culprit. Before TC life was very easy with only known yet ltd. spam calls for cards/loans/propeties and now when every tom dick harry using TC esp. on stock settings the data is shared with TC for spamming.
I don't think so because my number is unlisted from Truecaller since 4+ years. The culprits are those at the food counters, local shops, random salesperson in a mall, etc.. who take your name and number. I know someone who works at Inox, he told me the food counter folks have been selling phone numbers for several years.
 
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nRiTeCh

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I don't think so because my number is unlisted from Truecaller since 4+ years. The culprits are those at the food counters, local shops, random salesperson in a mall, etc.. who take your name and number. I know someone who works at Inox, he told me the food counter folks have been selling phone numbers for several years.
It is. Check what happens once you install TC. It clearly says share your contacts with them and only in Pro ver. you have option to skip this. Boom! Spamming chalu! And 99% public will just do next next next without even bothering what the options do..
 

t3chg33k

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This is the reason I deleted WA from my primary number and set it up on a secondary one. Don't have to deal with any WA crap anymore as the secondary number is provided only to direct contacts.

I enabled WA just for a day on my primary number recently and it was immediately populated with dozens of spam messages. Deleted it again thereafter.