Morocco’s spam call rate remains low compared to Africa, though experts urge caution

A recent report by the Swedish caller identification application Truecaller found that 14% of phone calls received in Morocco in 2025 were classified as spam, unwanted or fraudulent, a relatively low rate compared to other African countries but one that experts say may underestimate the true scale of cyber fraud.

According to the report, Morocco’s spam call rate remains significantly below levels recorded elsewhere on the continent. Nigeria ranked first in Africa, with 51% of calls from unknown numbers identified as spam or fraudulent, followed by South Africa at 30% and Egypt at 22%.

Globally, the highest levels of spam calls were recorded in Indonesia, where 79% of calls were classified as spam in 2025. Chile followed with 70%, while Vietnam ranked third at 68%, reflecting the growing global prevalence of phone-based fraud.

Looking ahead to 2026, the report warned of the increasing automation of scam calls, noting that artificial intelligence-generated voice calls are becoming harder to distinguish from legitimate ones. It added that fraud scripts are evolving rapidly, making scams more sophisticated and potentially more convincing for victims.

Ayoub El Aich, a Moroccan cybersecurity expert at HackerOne, said population size plays a key role in the spread of such scams, explaining Indonesia’s global ranking. He added that Morocco’s relatively lower rate is partly due to the country not yet reaching full-scale digitalization, as many scams rely on access to users’ online data through banking and digital transactions.

El Aich also cautioned against overstating the role of artificial intelligence in Morocco’s current fraud landscape. He said most scam calls are still conducted by humans, as developing AI systems capable of carrying out complex fraudulent interactions remains technically challenging and constrained by safeguards in many machine learning models.

While acknowledging that some actors may bypass these safeguards, he noted that the use of AI-driven scam calls remains limited in Morocco, particularly due to linguistic barriers. Advanced voice-based AI systems are more commonly deployed in English- or French-speaking environments, whereas replicating natural Moroccan Arabic dialects remains difficult.

Tayeb El Hazzaz, a cybersecurity and strategic monitoring expert, said the relatively low spam rate in Morocco should not be interpreted solely as a sign of higher public awareness, although digital literacy has improved in recent years amid increased warnings about scam calls and social engineering.

He warned that the figures should be treated with caution, as a significant portion of fraudulent activity is not captured by technical detection systems or databases used by applications such as Truecaller. Many Moroccans, he noted, do not use caller identification apps or report suspicious numbers, creating what he described as a “dark” segment of untracked fraud activity.

As a result, the actual rate of scam attempts is likely much higher than reported, particularly in regions or among populations with limited access to digital protection tools.

El Hazzaz added that Moroccan telecom operators have made some progress in blocking suspicious international numbers and large-scale spam campaigns. However, he said the country has not yet reached the advanced defensive levels seen in parts of Europe or Asia.

He emphasized that fraud in Morocco remains largely human-driven, relying on social engineering tactics that exploit trust, fear and greed, rather than widespread use of automated bots or advanced AI voice systems.

Still, he warned that the country may be entering a critical transition phase, as the integration of artificial intelligence into cybercrime could significantly increase the effectiveness of scam calls by enabling more convincing voice imitation and identity fraud, raising the level of threat in the coming years.