South Africans deal with spam calls, phishing SMS, and marketing messages daily. Mathew Riddle, a 30-year-old IT specialist from Gauteng, built an app to deal with it.
Who built it
Riddle got fed up with the constant spam calls and scams hitting his phone. He described himself as "gatvol" to IOL News and decided to build a tool himself. The result is FokOffMense, an app designed around South Africa's specific spam problems.
What it does
FokOffMense combines several tools in one app:
- Community spam blocking — Users report nuisance calls and SMS. The app builds a shared blocklist that grows with every report.
- POPIA opt-out letters — Generate and send legal opt-out requests to companies misusing your personal data. The letters comply with the Protection of Personal Information Act.
- Email spam filtering — Upload a Google Takeout file and the app blocks spam senders in your Gmail account. The filters stay in your account and you can disconnect the integration at any time.
- Data breach monitoring — Built-in checks with Have I Been Pwned show you which breaches exposed your email addresses.
- Privacy controls — SMS history never leaves your phone. Takeout files get deleted after processing.
Why South Africa needs this
South Africa has some of the highest spam call rates in the world. Scams range from fake insurance offers to phishing SMS about SARS tax refunds. Most caller ID apps handle the problem individually. FokOffMense takes a different approach: when one user reports a spam number, every user benefits.
The app also addresses a gap that global tools ignore. South Africa's POPIA gives residents the right to opt out of marketing. FokOffMense generates the letters to exercise that right. No other caller ID app does this.
Subscription pricing sits in South African Rand, and the feature set matches local needs rather than European or American spam patterns.
What it does not do
- The community blocklist only works if people report numbers. New spam campaigns take time to build up coverage.
- Some companies ignore opt-out requests. You may need to follow up or escalate.
- Gmail integration requires uploading a Takeout file. Users who want zero cloud connectivity will skip this feature.
How it compares
Generic caller ID apps block spam on an individual basis. FokOffMense adds community reporting, POPIA compliance tools, and breach monitoring. The table below shows the differences:
| Feature | FokOffMense (SA) | Generic Caller ID |
|---|---|---|
| Spam call blocking | Community-driven | Individual only |
| POPIA opt-out letters | Yes | No |
| Gmail spam filtering | Filters only | Rare |
| Data breach alerts | Built-in | Limited |
| Local compliance | POPIA | GDPR/Generic |
Where to get it
FokOffMense is available on the Google Play Store. The official website has more details on features and pricing.
South Africans who spend their days declining unknown calls and deleting phishing SMS have a tool built for their problem. Riddle built it because nothing else worked. That is usually how the best local software gets made.