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Date Published: 14/01/2025

Spanish Police explain how to stop receiving spam calls

Legal loopholes allow for certain companies to continue to make commercial calls to the people of Spain

Despite the fact that spam phone calls were banned by Spanish law in 2023, many people in the country continue to receive unwanted calls on a daily basis. That is why the Spanish National Police are seeking to inform people of how to deal with phone calls from individuals and companies they don’t know.

The National Police wrote recently on the social media platform X, “If you are desperate with so much spam and don’t know what to do, don’t worry.” The message was then followed by a document that explains that the ban on spam calls applies “to commercial calls made by a person and not to those made using automatic dialing systems without human intervention”

These automatic dialing systems are a loophole in the law and may be the reason that many people continue to receive a certain number of pre-recorded spam calls. Furthermore, another reason why a person may continue to receive unwanted calls is because that person may have previously given consent for the company to be able to contact them.

The Spanish Data Protection Agency wrote on this subject that “For the company to be able to justify its legitimate interest in making commercial calls to you, you must have had a previous relationship with it, having purchased its products or services and, in addition, the ones it wants to offer you must be similar to those you had previously contracted.”

However, if the contractual relationship is no longer in place between the person and the company and the company has not been in contact with the person for over a year then the company would be breaking the law if they then contact you again.

Moreover, a new scam known as the ‘wangri’ method is being deployed as a means of stealing money from people in Spain who do not recognise a number that has called them. The swindle works by tricking people into calling back the number they do not recognise at a special rate that leaves the person with a large phone bill at the end of the month.

The Spanish Data Protection Agency recommends for people bothered by spam or aware of scams to “register in an advertising exclusion system (Robinson List)”, so that people can only make commercial calls if they have given specific consent to the company calling.

Furthermore, modern mobile phones also allow you to enable a function to detect whether a call is fraudulent. On mobile phones with the Android operating system, Google allows you to activate the 'caller ID and spam protection' to be warned about possible spam calls and save the person being called time by not having to answer the phone.

For more information, news and what’s on visit our homepage at Spanish News Today

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