U.S. Consumers Received Over 4.7 Billion Robocalls in January, According to YouMail Robocall Index

Monthly Robocall Volume Rose Nearly 9% From December 2024

IRVINE, Calif., Feb. 6, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- U.S. consumers received just over 4.7 billion robocalls in January 2025, marking a nearly 9% increase from December 2024, according to YouMail's latest Robocall Index.

On a monthly basis, January averaged 152.9 million robocalls/day and 1,769 robocalls/second, up 8.7% from December's average of 140.6 million robocalls/day and 1,627 robocalls/second. Unfortunately, this was a 10.8% increase year-over-year from January 2024.

"Robocall volume seems to be continuing to trend higher once again," said YouMail CEO Alex Quilici. "While things are noticeably better since the TRACED ACT passed, especially the big decline in scam calls, it's clear that the TRACED ACT did not solve the problem, and robocallers are finding ways to get their calls on the network."

These latest figures are provided by YouMail, a totally free app to protect consumers from unwanted or dangerous calls, texts, and voicemails. The figures are determined by extrapolating from the robocall traffic attempting to reach YouMail's millions of active users.

All Categories of Robocalls Increased in January

January saw a stunning 40% increase in scam calls and a material 9% increase in telemarketing calls compared to December. Payment Reminders were up 4.5%, and other notifications rose 0.4%

As a result, scam and telemarketing calls together added up to nearly 2.6 billion robocalls for the month, or roughly 54% of all robocalls.

January 2025's Most Annoying Robocalling Campaign

The most problematic robocall campaign in January involved pre-approved personal loans, with calls the one from this number:

This is an important message from the underwriting department. Great news, you're still pre-qualified for up to $70,000, with monthly payments as low as $420. To speak with a member of our underwriting team and secure these terms, please press 2 now. To be placed on our Do Not Call list, please press 1."

"Hello, this is Morgan with an important update from our Loan Eligibility Group. According to my system, you may be qualified for a consolidation loan of up to $85,000. Payments for these loans can start as low as $480 per month. Please give me a call as soon as possible at (877) 200-2515. Again, that number is (877) 200-2515."

This call campaign is problematic because of a high volume of calls, appearing to exceed one hundred million in January. The campaign originated from hundreds of thousands of different numbers. The calls do not clearly identify the company calling, referring only to the "loan eligibility group" or the "underwriting department", sometimes even referring to both in the same message. Based on consumer feedback, they appear to target people who never contacted the company or requested a call. Multiple versions of the campaign offer different loan amounts but always the same monthly payment, which is indicative of a possibly fraudulent campaign. Although the campaign includes a toll-free callback number, it does not highlight that the number can be used to opt out. Furthermore, when calling back, the source of the calls appears to require significant additional information before providing the loan, suggesting a risk of identity theft.

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 from well over 20 million phone numbers, 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
ICR Technology
[email protected]

SOURCE YouMail Inc.