Viewing the Spam List:

Reporting a New Spam Number:

Managing Your Trust Circle:

User Settings:

Fees and Charges:

ANSWERS:

The Ban Karo system studies the trust circle that you have created as part of the entire social network, and selects the spam numbers most ideally probable to call you up. In other words, new numbers may come from your friends in your trust circle, or from your friends’ friends, and so on. Ban Karo takes into account a lot of factors while adding numbers to users’ accounts, and hence it is difficult to state exactly which number will be received from friends and which will not be.

2. What if I don't get any spam calls from the numbers that I've added?

This implies that the quality of your trust circle is weak, either because you don’t have enough people in it, or if the people you’ve added do not fit your own profile. One way to fix this is to add people close to you professionally or operating in the same social context e.g. doctors add doctors, IT professionals add colleagues in the same company, etc. The thing to remember is that Ban Karo is not a general purpose social network, so you should only add people who can help you avoid mobile spam.

As an alternative, you simply could wait and let Ban Karo do its magic. Eventually you’ll start getting much better quality numbers even if you don’t add any more people to your trust circle.

3. Will I be charged for the SMSes that you send to me?

All new Ban Karo users get 10 free credits for receiving contacts via SMS, as a limited offer. Once the free credits are exhausted, the user can purchase additional credits online in order to continue receiving spam numbers via SMS. We offer various payment mechanisms. Do check the fees & charges page for more information.

4. I erased my phone's contact book. How do I get my spam numbers again?

All the spam numbers that you have received are permanently stored in your account. To retrieve them, simply view the full list, select all the numbers, and collect them via SMS or email.

5. What happens if I don't report even a single spam number?

Even if you don’t report a single spam number, the Ban Karo system ensures that you’ll receive your fair share of spam number contacts, so you can still be adequately protected. Having said that, Ban Karo does have a built-in bias towards people who add relevant spam numbers, and adding these significantly increases your chance of receiving good-quality spam number contacts.

6. Will I get spam numbers if I don't report any?

Yes. Even if you do not report a single spam number ever, you’ll still receive spam number contacts as and when the Ban Karo system identifies relevant numbers for you.

7. If I report a number, will everybody get the number instantly?

No. The Ban Karo system ensures that added numbers are only propagated to users for whom there is a high probability of it being relevant. So, if you report a number, there are no guarantees that anybody else would receive it.

8. If someone adds my number as spam, what will happen?

Firstly, you can rest assured that the Ban Karo system has adequate protection against this eventuality. In the unlikely case that this happens, your number will not be propagated to other users without due consideration. In case you are facing a problem of this nature, do contact us (contactus[at]bankaro[dot]com) and we’ll gladly sort out the issue.

9. Why don't you support communities on Ban Karo?

As mentioned earlier, Ban Karo is not a general purpose social network, but is instead geared towards helping people protect themselves against spam calls. Since we understand that our users are busy people who would rather not spend too much time using our service, we have made a conscious decision to not include standard social network features in Ban Karo, and hence you will not find communities, scrap books, photo pages, video pages, etc. on the system.

10. Why can't I search on Ban Karo for people I know?

Above all else, we value the privacy of our users. If you know the person you are trying to add, you ought to have his/her email address. If not, you probably do not know the person well enough.

11. I'm getting upwards of 50 spam numbers a day from your system, most of which are from Bombay. I'm in Delhi. What should I do?

This is probably because you either have too many people added in your trust circle, or if most of the people you have added reside in Bombay. In either case, we suggest that you take a close hard look at your trust circle, and start removing people who are irrelevant for some reason (in another profession, in another city, etc.). Waiting for a while after this step ensures that the Ban Karo system will realign its understanding of your social context and start giving you relevant spam number contacts.

12. If I remove somebody from my trust circle, will they get to know about it?

Yes. This is a relationship of mutual assistance, so if you remove somebody from your trust circle, you will disappear from their trust circle as well.

However, we encourage you to remove people from your trust circle if you find out that they are not relevant to your aim of receiving spam number contacts. Again, this is not a general purpose social network, and so there is no sense in keeping people who could be responsible for reducing the quality of your received numbers.

13. I get only 1 new spam number per week. I need more! What should I do?

One possible reason could be that your trust circle does not contain enough people having your social context. In your case, you should add more people to your trust circle, but only those who fit your own profile, e.g. doctors add doctors, IT professionals add colleagues in the same company, and so on. Do not add people from other cities, unless it fits your social profile. For example, if you keep moving between Bombay and Pune, it makes sense to add people from both cities, but not otherwise.

The bottomline is: We advise our users to only add those people into their trust circles who can help them receive better quality spam numbers.

14. What happens if I forgot my password?

You can click the forgot password link on the login page. We will mail you your current password.

15. How frequently can I change my password?

You can change the password whenever you feel like.

16. Why can't I change my mobile number?

You are allowed to change your mobile number once we get out of beta-testing. For changing the mobile number you would be required to enter your password again.

17. Why can't I change my email address?

Your email address acts as your login ID. So, we recommned you dont even think about changing that :)