Robocalls Continue to Rile, But Help Is Coming

Americans received more than 4.7 billion robocalls in January, a 4 percent increase from December but a 16 percent decrease from October's all-time monthly record of nearly 5.7 billion robocalls, according to data from YouMail.

The January total amounts to an average of 150 million robocalls placed per day, or 1,771 robocalls per second.

Spam calls increased by 8 percent in January (as scammers likely returned from vacation) and payment reminders increased by 5 percent (as reminders for end-of-year expenses started going out).

Type of Robocall	Estimated December Robocalls	Percentage December Robocalls
Scams	2.1 billion (+8%)	44%
Alerts and Reminders	1.1 billion (flat)	24%
Payment Reminders	1.0 billion (+5%)	22%
Telemarketing	0.48 billion (-6%)	10%

Top Illegal Robocalls in January 2020

In January, seven types of scams exceeded 100 million calls each, with a big decline in medical scams, and big increases in interest rate, debt reduction, and student loan scams.  

Rank	Type of Scam	Estimated January Robocalls	Summary of Scam
1	Health-Related Scams	328.5m	Identity theft/scam payments/illegal solicitations
2	Interest Rate Scams	252.3m	Identify theft/financial scams
3	Debt Reduction	134.6m	Identify theft/financial scams
4	Student Loan Scams	129.4m	Identify theft/scam payments
5	Govt. Imposter Scams	127.7m	Illegal solicitations/scam payments
6	Easy Money Scams	120.1m	Identify theft/scam payments
7	Warranty Scams	105.9m	Scam payments

The cities, area codes and states with the highest volumes of robocalls in December were similar to the past months, with each experiencing decreased volumes. 

City with the Most Robocalls:	Atlanta, GA (185.9 million, +2%)
City with the Most Robocalls/Person:	Washington, DC (48.4/person, +5%)
Area Code with the Most Robocalls:	404 in Atlanta, GA (79.6 million, +2%)
Area Code with the Most Robocalls/Person:	404 in Atlanta, GA (65.1/person, +2%)
State with the Most Robocalls:	Texas (518.2 million, +2%)
State with the Most Robocalls/Person:	Louisiana (28.8/person, +2%)

Luckily, phone carriers Sprint and Comcast are rolling out anti-robocall technology to help protect consumers. 

The companies are using Secure Telephone Identity Revisited (STIR) and Signature-based Handling of Asserted Information Using toKENs (SHAKEN) protocols that authenticate calls between networks. The technology enables voice providers to "sign" and "verify" caller ID information, thus preventing bad actors from manipulating or "spoofing" caller ID information in an effort to deceive and defraud consumers.

"This is a major milestone in the fight to help our customers protect themselves from unwanted robocalls that have become such a plague for the industry," said John Saw, chief technology officer, which is introducing the technology across its Sprint and T-Mobile networks. "Our engineers have worked diligently with the teams at Comcast to bring this to fruition, and with work already underway with additional providers, we look forward to rolling out STIR/SHAKEN jointly across other networks as soon as possible."

"We've made great progress with our industry peers, like Sprint, in developing ways to thwart nuisance calls, and we will continue to work relentlessly to stop them from reaching our customers," said Tony Werner, president of technology, product, and Xperience at Comcast, which is rolling out the technology across its Xfinity. "Every STIR/SHAKEN implementation between providers, or bi-partisan action to pass landmark legislation like the TRACED Act, is another step forward in protecting consumers."