Answer it? Bad call.

Why BadCall exists

Australians lose hundreds of millions of dollars a year to scams, and phone calls and text messages are how most of them start. Scammers rely on one thing: that you answer before you know who it is. A thirty-second look-up beats them - but only if someone else has already said what that number is up to.

So BadCall makes it as easy as possible to do both: look a number up in one box, and report one in thirty seconds, with no account, no email address and no app.

How the BadCall Score works

Every report has a verdict - bad call, not sure or safe. The BadCall Score turns all of a number's reports into one figure from 0 to 100:

• a bad call counts 1, not sure counts half and safe counts 0;
• recent reports count more - a report's weight halves after six months, so a number that has changed hands recovers;
• reports other people mark as helpful count more (up to double);
• a number always starts from an imaginary "not sure", so one report can move it to 75 or 25 - never straight to 100 or 0.

Where the information comes from

• Reports are written by members of the public about calls and texts they received. They are opinions and experiences, not verified facts.
• Listed businesses - over 102,708 numbers - come from businesses' own public listings, so you can tell a real tradie or clinic from a stranger. A scammer can still fake ("spoof") a real business's number, so a listing is a clue, not a guarantee.
• Regions for landlines come from the Australian numbering plan's geographic areas and, where several businesses in the same block of numbers agree, from where those businesses are. Mobiles have no region: they move anywhere in Australia and between carriers.

Keeping it clean - automatically

Nobody has to approve a report before it goes live, so every one is checked by software first: flood limits per visitor, a spam score that holds back adverts and copy-paste campaigns, e-mail addresses and card numbers masked, web links made unclickable (written as example[.]com) and swearing starred. After that the community keeps it honest - three flags on a report hide it by itself. If something still slips through, tell us.

Privacy

BadCall never stores your IP address. To stop spam and double votes it keeps only a one-way code made from it, which can't be turned back into the address. There are no accounts, so there is nothing about you to leak. The privacy policy has the details.

Who runs BadCall

BadCall (badcall.com.au) is operated by XTO Pty Ltd (ACN 702 801 410), L1 457 Elizabeth Street, Surry Hills, NSW 2010, Australia. BadCall is independent: it isn't part of any government agency, telco or business named on the site.