Monthly Robocalls Spike at 2.5 Billion Calls Received Across U.S. in April

Frustrated Consumers Fight Back with Solutions Such as YouMail

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May 10, 2017, 09:00 ET

IRVINE, Calif., May 10, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- U.S. robocalls rose for the second straight month in April to 2.5 billion calls received nationwide, equaling a pace of 965 robocalls placed every second on average across America during the month, up from 917 robocalls per second in March.

In addition, daily robocall volumes increased to 83.3 million robocalls received each day on average in April, marking a 5.2% increase over the daily average for March.

These estimates come from YouMail, which has stopped 500 million-plus robocalls in the past year while compiling 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 a definitive source for national data trends, just as more consumers are downloading the YouMail app to safeguard their mobile phones.

"Despite recent concerted efforts to address this problem by FCC regulators and phone carriers, it's clear that the robocallers continue to perpetuate their unwanted assault on the American public," said Alex Quilici, CEO of YouMail. "Preventing robocalls is extremely challenging because the current technology makes it quite easy and inexpensive to spoof real phone lines and crank out millions of unwanted calls."

Inbound Robocalling "Lowlights" from April
Five Texas area codes made the list of the 20 Most Robocalled Area Codes in April, including three area codes in greater Houston (832, 281 and 713), and two in Dallas (214 and 817). Texas notched the most robocalls of any state with 287.2 million calls received in April.

Another Southern state, Florida, was also plagued by heavy robocalling volumes in three cities, including Fort Lauderdale area code 954, Miami 305, and Orlando 407.

Alaska experienced a huge 32.3% rise in monthly robocalling volumes, marking the largest increase of any state during April, followed by Maine (19.6%) and Kansas (14.6%).

Atlanta 404 continued its ongoing streak as the most robocalled area code in America, with 49.7 million calls received in April. Atlanta 678 and 770 also made the list of the 20 Most Robocalled Area Codes with 34.7 million and 22.0 million calls, respectively.

Indianapolis ranked #23 with a 26% month-on-month increase in robocalls, jumping to 21.2 million robocalls received.

Outbound Robocalling "Lowlights" from April
Dallas overtook Los Angeles in April as the city generating the most monthly robocalls, with Dallas producing 73.8 million robocalls, a 17.2% increase month-over-month. Chicago ranked second in outbound calls, rising 20.3% to 72.3 million, followed by L.A. at 63.7 million calls placed.

Philadelphia ranked as the #11 city in outbound robocalls in April, rising 35.6% to 33.6 million calls placed. Baltimore ranked #14 with a 32.6% monthly increase to 28.6 million calls, while Tampa ranked #19 with a 29.4% increase in outbound calls to 21.8 million calls made.

Debt collectors continued to dominate the types of top robocalling numbers by volume, with 17 of the top 20 robocalling phone lines coming from debt collectors for banks, retailers and cable companies.

One national credit card company has held onto the most active robocalling phone number for 20 consecutive months, making 27.0 million outbound calls in April. This one phone number has placed 532.8 million robocalls over the past 20 months.

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.