U.S. Consumers Received Just Under 4.5 Billion Robocalls in May, According to YouMail Robocall Index

Monthly Volume Has Decreased 12% Year-Over-Year, As Robocalls Continue at a Stable, Lower Level in 2024

IRVINE, Calif., June 5, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- U.S. consumers received just under 4.5 billion robocalls in May, which represents a 1.7% increase over April but an 11.7% decrease over May 2023. Despite the slight increase, we are now in the sixth month in a row below 150 million calls/day, and the seventh month in a row with a year-over-year decline in robocalls.   

May averaged 144.5 million robocalls/day and 1,673 robocalls/second, down 1.6% from April's average of 146.9 million robocalls/day and 1,700 robocalls/second, up 6.8%. May's 31 days vs. April's 30 days led to the slight overall increase in robocalls.

"Robocall volume continues to be fairly steady, despite minor month-to-month fluctuations," said YouMail CEO Alex Quilici. "This feels like considerable progress, with calls down to a significantly lower level than they were even a year ago."

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.

Scam Calls Had a Large Increase in May

After April's 73% spike in scam calls, such scams calls were down almost 10% in May. Telemarketing calls were up nearly 8%, while Notifications and Payment Reminders weren't materially changed.

Scam calls and telemarketing calls combined continue to be roughly 2.3 billion calls/month, slightly more than 51% of all robocalls. Scam calls appear to be running at levels slightly lower than a year ago, and substantially lower than previous years.

May 2024's Most Dangerous Robocalling Campaigns

The most problematic robocalling campaigns in May are related to loans and debt reduction. The first robocall campaign leaves a pre-recorded message that claims they can immediately fund a loan for $36,000, like calls from this number:

Hello, please listen to this important message. Today is Thursday, May 2nd. This is a message from the National Financial Hardship Loan Center. This is a final attempt to reach you regarding a $36,000 financial hardship loan that can be funded today. Due to inflation and rising costs, we offer same-day approval with no debt check. This loan can be used for any purpose, including paying off debt, unexpected bills, or personal use. Please call our National Office today at 848-214-5140. Again, that number is 848-214-5140. Thank you.

The overall volume for this call is large, approaching 20 million or more calls per month, and using a constantly changing set of different phone numbers and slight variants on the core message. These calls are violating telemarketing sales rules, and further, based on numerous spam reports from YouMail users, they appear to be calling people who never contacted the company or asked to be called. Aside from that, there are reports that they require significant upfront fees and personal information and then provide no actual financial loans.

This second robocall campaign is very similar, just from a different source.  A typical example comes in calls from this number:

Yes, this is Sarah Cohen from Relief Advisory Approval Department. My phone number is 844-204-6130. I'm not sure if you've already spoken to an assigned agent, but I can see your pre-approval is up to $48,000 on a few new programs that have recently taken effect. So, what I'll do, I've just got to keep this in pending status for you. And if you have about 10 minutes today, give me a call back and I can go over the details with you as well as the benefit. So again, my phone number is 844-204-6130. Thank you.

The overall volume for this call is also in the tens of millions of calls per month, calling from tens of thousands of different numbers. This is violating the telemarketing sales rules by not supporting a mechanism for opting out of future calls, as well as not clearly identifying the entity making the calls. Finally, loan scammers are calling people who claim they never consented to these calls.

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.