An estimated 1.45 billion robocalls were placed to U.S. phones in the month of December, marking a 48.5% increase in the nation’s monthly robocall volume and the first time on record that the national robocall volume has exceeded 1 billion monthly calls.
The results come from YouMail’s latest National Robocall Index™, which highlights top robocalling phone numbers, most robocalled cities, and most common types of robocalls in the United States each month.
The breakdown:
December’s report shows that for the second straight month, Columbus, Ohio was the city where the most robocalls were made, with 66.8 million calls placed. Additionally, four of the Top 20 robocallers from non-toll free area codes originated in the state of Texas, including Dallas 972 and 469, and Houston 713 and 832.
As for most common types of robocallers, the Robocall Index points to debt collectors and political speech with Healthcare.gov being one of the leading robocallers mentioned in the list.
What needs to be done:
As the amount of robocalls recorded for the month of December reaches a new high of 1.45 billion calls made to unsuspecting and irritated consumers across the nation, it’s time for definitive action to be taken against robocallers. A resolution passed by the FCC in June gave the FCC greater authority to fine spammers and spoofers, and it allows telephone carriers to offer robocall-blocking services to customers.
YouMail’s CEO, Alex Quilici comments that “to really solve a problem, you first need to measure it so you can track progress. Our YouMail Robocall Index shows there are over a billion robocalls made every month, and that number of robocalls has nearly doubled over the past three months. It’s a huge time drain on American productivity, continually leads to fraud and crimes committed against unsuspecting citizens, and now appears to be rapidly getting worse.“
What this means for you:
If you’re constantly receiving robocalls, it’s highly beneficial that you know the calls are spam before you answer them. Be aware of debt collection and political campaigning calls that may be trying to harass you for your time and money. Make sure you’re following the trend of robocallers and are on the lookout for phone calls that are being made by spammers by using YouMail’s Robocall Index. Plus, give yourself extra protection from telemarketers with YouMail’s Smart Blocking, which recognizes robocallers and blocks them for you automatically.
Find out additional information about the results from December’s Robocall Index in this article posted to PR Newswire.