Monthly Robocalls Rise 11% in March to 2.45 Billion Calls Received Across U.S.
More Consumers Adopting Apps Like YouMail To Fight Back
IRVINE, Calif., April 11, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- U.S. robocalls ratcheted up 11% month-over-month in March to an estimated 2.45 billion spam calls received, reversing the trend of a slow decline in the nation's robocall volume over the past six months.
Further, March was the first time that all 50 cities on the 50 Most Robocalled Cities in America list posted month-over-month gains in robocalling volumes – and almost two-thirds of these cities notched robocall increases of 10% or more over February. The total of 2.45 billion robocalls equals an average of 79.2 million robocalls per day, or 917 robocalls for every second of the month.
These estimates come from YouMail, which has stopped 500 million robocalls in the past year, and compiled the scope and location of the worst robocalling hotspots across the country by area code in the YouMail Robocall Index™. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has cited statistics from the YouMail Robocall Index as part of its work to tackle this problem, just as more consumers are downloading the YouMail app to safeguard their mobile phones.
"FCC regulators, telecom carriers and tech firms have all expanded their efforts this year to protect consumers and businesses against the plague of robocalls, but this problem continues to grow because it is now so simple and inexpensive to set up spoofed phone lines and place millions of unwanted robocalls," said Alex Quilici, CEO of YouMail. "It's time to make it much harder for the bad guys to get away with this extremely frustrating and unproductive practice."
Inbound Robocalling "Lowlights" from March
In March, Atlanta clung to its dubious distinction as the Most Robocalled City in America for the 16th straight month. Atlanta residents were inundated by 107.7 million robocalls in March, a 12% increase over the prior month, with Atlanta area code 404 (48.4 million calls received) topping the list of Most Robocalled Area Codes, and Atlanta area code 678 (34.5 million calls received) ranking as the #3 Most Robocalled Area Code.
In fact, nearly half of the 50 Most Robocalled Cities (46%) were based in Southern states. Five of the 20 Most Robocalled Area Codes were in Texas, including three area codes in greater Houston alone. Texas got the most robocalls of any state for the 10th consecutive month, with 274.3 million calls received in March. Alabama notched the biggest month-on-month robocall increase of any state, rising 15.6% to 61.5 million robocalls received.
Other cities that suffered the biggest robocall increases in March included Birmingham, rising 20 rankings to #19 with 24.6 million calls received; Boston, rising 15 rankings to #29 (20.0 million); and Denver, rising six rankings to #31 (19.6 million).
Outbound Robocalling "Lowlights" from March
For the second straight month, Los Angeles was the city generating the most robocalls, increasing 5% over February to 69.5 million calls placed. Five other major cities placed more than 50 million robocalls in March, including Atlanta (63.2 million), Dallas (63 million), Chicago (60.1 million), New York (55.3 million) and Houston (52.3 million).
Columbus, OH, rose a whopping 38.2% to 38.7 million calls placed, and Columbus area code 614 topped the monthly list of area codes placing robocalls, with 37.3 million outbound calls.
Fully 16 of the Top 20 Robocalling Phone Numbers by volume for the month came from debt collectors. A national credit card company topped the list for the 19th straight month by placing more than 20.8 million calls in March.
For more information about the YouMail Robocall Index or to view the latest report, please visit: http://robocallindex.com. To join the YouMail Robocall Index mailing list, please write to: [email protected].
About YouMail, Inc.
YouMail, Inc. is the leading provider of intelligent, cloud-based telecommunication services. The company's flagship service provides an automated virtual receptionist that replaces the subscriber's voicemail on iPhone, Android, and Windows phones. This service stops robocalls, provides free conference calls, and delights callers by instantly greeting, routing, and responding to callers, personally and memorably. YouMail also provides data on problematic phone number behavior, through a reverse phone lookup service that allows anyone to identify and comment on suspicious numbers, an application program interface (API) that any telecom service provider or third-party developer can use to determine whether a number is problematic, and the YouMail Robocall Index™, which since its launch in in September 2015 has emerged as the nation's definitive source on robocalling data for telecom carriers, smartphone and app companies, and public policymakers. Headquartered in Irvine, Calif., YouMail, Inc. was founded in 2007 and is privately funded.
Contact:
Matt Russell for YouMail
Lumina Communications
[email protected]
646-741-8359
SOURCE YouMail, Inc.
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