U.S. Consumers Received Just Under 4 Billion Robocalls in February, According to YouMail Robocall Index

Monthly Volume Has Decreased 8% Year Over Year, As Robocalls Continue Trending Downward Over Time

IRVINE, Calif., March 7, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- U.S. consumers received just under 4 billion robocalls in February, which represents a 6.9% decrease over January and an 8% decrease over February 2023. This decline also marks the second month in the last three months with volumes under 4 billion robocalls, which hasn't happened since July 2022.

February averaged 137.2 million robocalls/day and 1,588 robocalls/second, down only 0.5% from January's average of 137.9 million robocalls/day and 1,596 robocalls/second. This suggests that the incremental decline in February is almost entirely due to fewer days in the month.

"There really does appear to be a trend of lower robocall volumes," said YouMail CEO Alex Quilici. "This development is nice to see, and it appears that increased enforcement and regulatory efforts are starting to pay off."

These latest figures are provided by YouMail, a totally free robocall blocking app and call protection service for mobile phones. The figures are determined by extrapolating from the robocall traffic attempting to get through to YouMail's millions of active users.

Unwanted Robocalls, Especially Scam Calls, Are Declining

Likely unwanted robocall volumes rose to 45% from combined telemarketing and spam calls, up slightly from 42% in January. However, this was because of a reduction in wanted notifications and reminders, while unwanted call volumes stayed relatively steady.

Further, scam calls continued their overall downward trajectory in total volume.

February 2024's Most Interesting Robocalling Campaigns

There were two robocall campaigns of particular interest in February. The first one claims preapproval for a personal loan of up to $10,000, like the calls from this number:

Congratulations, this message is regarding your loan application which has been approved from our company for up to $10,000. So, if you are still looking for the loan, press one now or just give us a call on same number. I repeat press one now. Thank you and have a great day.

The overall volume for this fake loan call is large, in the tens of millions of calls each month from thousands of different numbers. These calls are violating telemarketing sales rules, and further, they appear to be calling people who never applied for a personal loan with this company.  

The other campaign of interest appears to be calling numerous small businesses and threatening that they will lose their search presence in Google. There are multiple variants of this campaign, but a typical one is in calls from this number:

Hello. Please do not hang up the phone. This is an important message regarding your Google business account.  Searches for your business on Google and Google Voice are currently having trouble finding you. Press one to speak with an agent immediately and verify your Google listing. Again, your business is not showing correctly on Google and Google Voice. Press one to speak to an agent, or press two or dial 877-556-9255 to opt out.

The overall volume for this Google call is also in the tens of millions of calls per month, calling from thousands of different numbers. They appear to be calling people who claim they never consented to these calls, and they leave a misimpression that Google is calling. These calls prey on small businesses' dependency on traffic from Google.

The Source of This Data

These data points are provided by YouMail, a free call protection app for mobile phones. YouMail won the American Business Awards' Gold Stevie Award for Technical Innovation of the Year, and the YouMail app was named the nation's best robocall-blocking solution in a competition organized by Geoffrey Fowler of the Washington Post.

YouMail blocks unwanted robocallers by making sure the user's phone doesn't ring, and then plays an out-of-service message that leads them to think they dialed an invalid number. YouMail identifies problematic numbers and robocalls using a combination of its recently patented audio fingerprinting technology, call patterns, and consumer feedback.

YouMail provides the YouMail Robocall Index to estimate robocall volume across the country and for specific area codes every month. This estimate is formed by extrapolating from the behavior of the billions of calls YouMail has handled for its users, and these statistics are regularly cited by the FCC as a definitive source for national data trends.  

For a full ranking of cities, states and area codes, as well as details on the behavior of robocallers in each area code, please see http://robocallindex.com. To listen to actual voice messages left by robocallers, please visit the YouMail Directory. To join the YouMail Robocall Index mailing list, please write to [email protected].

About YouMail, Inc.

YouMail protects consumers, enterprises, and carriers from harmful phone calls. YouMail provides US and UK consumers app-based call protection services through the YouMail, Another Number, and HulloMail apps. These solutions answer over a billion live calls per year across well over 10 million registered users, powering America's most robust telephone sensor network in identifying and providing zero-hour protection against illegal calling campaigns and cyberattacks. YouMail Protective Services leverages this sensor network to protect consumer-facing enterprises by detecting and helping shut down imposter traffic that can lead to financial or brand damage, as well as to protect carriers with robocall mitigation services that detect and help stop bad traffic originating, traversing, or terminating on their networks. This sensor network is also used to provide the  YouMail Robocall Index™ is the nation's definitive source on telephone network activity and attacks. YouMail, Inc. is privately funded and based in Irvine, California. 

Contact:
Gabriella Troiani for YouMail
Lumina Communications
[email protected]

SOURCE YouMail Inc.