U.S. Robocalls Exceed 4 Billion in October, According to YouMail Robocall Index

October 2026 Is First Month in 2026 with Year-Over-Year Increase, Up 7.5% from October 2025

IRVINE, Calif., Nov. 10, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- U.S. consumers received over 4 billion robocalls in October 2026, according to the Robocall Index from YouMail, the robocall protection app that tracks U.S. robocalling behavior. That total represents an increase of more than 4.7% from September.

October averaged 129.8 million robocalls/day and 1,502 robocalls/second, up 1.4% from September's 128.0 million robocalls/day and 1,482 robocalls/second. The monthly increase stems largely from October having one more day than September.

Over the past 12 months, total robocalls reached just 48.4 billion, slightly above the lowest 12-month total recorded since April 2021, more than five years ago. Despite the monthly increase, the longer-term downward trend remains in place.

"Robocalls continue at a slower pace this year than last, with a good chance that 2026 will wind up with 5-10% fewer robocalls than 2025," said YouMail CEO Alex Quilici. "Unfortunately, Americans still receive nearly 2 billion unwanted calls each month, and fraud losses continue to grow. As always, consumers need to stay vigilant and protect themselves with robocall-blocking apps like YouMail."

These figures come from YouMail, a totally free app that protects consumers from unwanted or dangerous calls, texts, and voicemails. YouMail extrapolates its estimates from robocall traffic targeting its active user base.

Unwanted Calls Increased in October

Notification calls were the primary driver of October's increase. Notifications rose 11%, mostly due to political robocalls.

Unwanted calls fell slightly, and remained under 1.8 billion calls, the lowest level since December 2023.

October 2026's Most Annoying Robocalls

Same as much of 2026, October's most problematic robocall campaigns again centered on pre-approved debt-consolidation loan offers. The largest campaigns continue to be variants of this one:

Hey, Alma Arita calling from Bradford Capital. I reached out recently, and this is an important follow-up on your hardship loan options. Now that the midterm elections have passed, it's a good time to review your credit card payments and see whether there's a better way to manage those balances. Your file is still showing a pre-selection for up to $41,453, with estimated payments around $478 a month. I know things get busy, so I'll keep this simple. We can show you what combining several credit card balances into one fixed monthly payment might look like. The initial review only takes a couple of minutes, with no hard credit check to explore your options. Call me at (866) 956-1069. Your current offer window closes tomorrow, Friday, at 3 p.m. Again(866) 956-1069.

These campaigns again appear to have produced hundreds of millions of calls during the month, originating from tens of thousands of different numbers. Messages varied in the caller's name, organization, loan size, monthly payment, and callback number. The calls tend to come from toll-free numbers, which allows the callers to leverage the credibility those numbers provide.

Consumers consistently report these calls as spam, stating they never inquired about a loan, never applied for one, and never consented to be called. Based on consumer reports and calling behavior, the calls are likely scams, just like similar campaigns over the past year.

Consumers who receive these calls should report them to sites such as directory.youmail.com or spamreporters.com. Reporting helps protect others by ensuring these numbers are blocked not only by the YouMail app, but across a variety of carriers. It also helps aggregate valuable data that can be shared with regulators and law enforcement to support investigative efforts.  

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 formerly 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 or report spam calls or texts, please visit the YouMail Directory. To join the YouMail Robocall Index mailing list, please write to [email protected].   And to report scams or spams, go to the National Spam Reporting Center.

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
Lumina Communications
[email protected]

SOURCE YouMail Inc.