The Cost of a Bad Call

The Cost of a Bad Call is a heavy burden for Nigerians today. Unknown calls are now treated with suspicion, as 51% of them are flagged as spam or fraud according to Truecaller's latest Global Insights Report. This distrust has become a rational response to the environment where legitimate communication and fraud are increasingly arriving through the same channel.

The most obvious cost of falling victim to a fraudulent call is the financial loss, but the damage extends far beyond that. Time is lost, there is disruption to work, and a lingering anxiety follows. Banks, police, and the victim themselves must deal with the aftermath, including cancelled cards, blocked accounts, and the process of proving the transaction was not authorized.

The damage is not limited to the immediate financial loss. The compromised call can open the door to further attacks. Personal information provided during the fraudulent call can be used to perform a SIM swap, granting access to banking applications and other connected accounts. The phone number has evolved into a gateway to banking, payments, social media, email, and other parts of an individual's digital life.

A compromised call can become an attack on an individual's wider financial and digital identity. However, the most expensive call is not necessarily the one that reaches your phone. Sometimes, it's the call that reaches your mother's. Fraudsters often target family members who may be less familiar with common scams. A child's arrest, a relative stranded somewhere, or an emergency requiring a small payment can be used as scripts to gain access to someone else's money.

The loss is carried twice - once by the victim who must recover the money and once by the defrauded family member who feels guilty and responsible. The calls we stop answering also have a significant cost. When every unknown number is treated as a potential threat, legitimate opportunities begin to look like threats too. Genuinely important calls may be missed, leading to missed contracts, interviews, medical appointments, or important conversations.

Trust, once lost, is expensive to rebuild. For businesses, missed opportunities can mean missed customers, delayed transactions, and failed follow-ups. The new cost of doing business in Nigeria's growing digital economy is being exacerbated by telephone fraud. The same infrastructure that enables communication is increasingly being exploited by fraudsters.

People spend time verifying numbers, and businesses rely on alternative channels to confirm calls. Professionals hesitate before answering unknown calls, creating an informal tax on trust. It is a vicious cycle that impacts both individuals and the broader economy.