The German Federal Network Agency (dena) published current figures on the volume of complaints regarding the misuse of phone numbers today. For the year of 2022, the Federal Network Agency received a total of 150,363 written complaints about phone number misuse – to tackle this, a total of 1,446 phone numbers were officially deactivated.
In order to initiate measures against the misuse of phone numbers, the Federal Network Agency relies on complaints reported by consumers.
These are further details:
- With a total of 150,363 consumer submissions for 2022, the volume of complaints about phone number misuse remained at the same high level as in 2021.
- 1,446 phone numbers were deactivated to prevent further misuse. Related to these phone numbers, consumers complained about unsolicited short messages or advertising faxes, harassing call attempts, false pop-up error messages, and fake hotlines.
- In addition, billing and collection bans were imposed on 3,697 phone numbers. In these cases, hacking of routers or telephone systems would otherwise result in chargeable connections and unlawful costs for consumers.
- Whereas in 2021 the complaints were directed against SMS spam, the focus in 2022 is now on the issue of phone number manipulation.
Klaus Müller, President of the German Federal Network Agency, noted: "The number of consumer complaints about call number misuse is still at a consistently high level in 2022. The variety of topics covered by complaints remains large and is constantly changing. We consistently protect consumers from illegal business models and unjustified costs."
Source: dena
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