“About to Become a Millionaire”: SA Techie Builds ‘FokOffMense’ App to Block Spam for Good, SA Wowed

• A fed-up South African developer built an app called 'FokOffMense' to silence the spam calls that drove him to his limit
• The app automatically blocks unwanted callers and was born out of personal frustration with relentless telemarketing
• South Africans online celebrated the app as the solution they never knew they desperately needed

A South African software developer had enough of spam calls. So he built an app to fight back. The man behind 'FokOffMense' is a Cape Town-based techie, Matthew Riddle, who created the call-blocking application after years of being bombarded by telemarketers calling the wrong number and unsolicited sales pitches. The app's name, a blunt Afrikaans phrase, says everything about the frustration that sparked it.

What the 'FokOffMense' app does

The app works by automatically screening and blocking incoming calls from known spam numbers. Matthew built it using a database of flagged numbers that grows as more users report unwanted callers. The idea is simple: if enough people mark a number as spam, it gets blocked for everyone on the platform. Matthew told IOL that the project started as a personal tool.

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He was tired of answering his phone only to hear a recorded voice trying to sell him something. After sharing it with friends who had the same problem, he realised that the frustration was widespread and decided to release it publicly. The app is aimed squarely at South African users, who deal with a particular flood of spam calls linked to everything from insurance promotions to loan offers and scam operations.

See the Facebook post below:

Mzansi Loves the Idea

The story shared on the IOL News Facebook account resonated with South Africans who were amused by the app's name and said spam calls had become an almost daily annoyance.

User @Yvonne Doubell shared:

"Trucaller still lets them come through; it just does not ring."

User @Armand van der Walt said:

"Tsek, would also be a fitting name."

User @No Zihstak commented:

"He's about to become a millionaire cause it's a much needed app!"

User @Florence Tshepiso Masetla added:

"Give this man a Bell's."

User @Margaret Thozama Motsage commented:

"Afrikaners know how to name these apps. I’m reminded of that other app, EskomsêPush. Very tongue in cheek."

User @Hannelie Steyn said:

"If it's South African, I'm all in - this app is genius, Mathew Riddle, you rock!"

3 Briefly News articles about apps

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• A young woman showed off ChatGPT responses from a man she met on a dating app, and social media users joked that she was dating a robot.
• A university student shared a video presenting four completely free study apps and websites designed to help all students succeed academically.

Source: Briefly News