YouMail Releases First-Ever Detailed Breakdown of U.S. Robocalls

Robocall Index Analysis Shows 75% Of U.S. Robocalls Were Likely Unwanted in January 2018

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Feb 14, 2018, 09:00 ET

IRVINE, Calif., Feb. 14, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- YouMail, the provider of free robocall blocking software and the YouMail Robocall Index™, announced the results of the first-ever detailed analysis of the types and volumes of robocalls made in the U.S., providing a breakdown of the estimated nearly 2.9 billion robocalls made in January.

YouMail's data shows that robocalls fall into the following four categories: Payment Reminders/Debt Collectors (33%); Telemarketing (15%); Alerts or Reminders (27%); and Obvious Scams (25%).

This analysis shows why the robocall epidemic is so painful. No one wants to get scam calls, and many people don't want telemarketing or payment reminder/debt collector calls, yet these categories together account for 73% of the robocalls being made in any given month. Only 27% of these calls are likely expected or wanted by consumers.

Consumers Rely on Reminders and Alerts

The data shows that it's not desirable to simply ban all robocalls. Alerts/non-payment reminders tend to be wanted by users, and these include various types of notices and reminders, with the Top 10 and their estimated volume as follows:

Rank	Name	Volume	Type of Alert
1	Call Alert	181.8m	Forwarded calls from a service at another number
2	Prison Call	174.1m	Calls initiated from a prisoner using a calling service
3	Requested Callback	76.2m	Callbacks from services requested by user.
4	Appointment Reminder	36.3m	Call reminding to schedule/go to an appointment.
5	Service Alert	28.0m	Alerts to changes in a service (e.g., a trash pickup)
6	Medical Alert	26.2m	Prescription pickup, wellness checks, etc.
7	School Alert	22.2m	Teacher or student-related alert
8	Fraud Alert	12.2m	Credit Card/Bank/Other fraud alert
9	Emergency Alert	3.9m	Warning/Info about upcoming/past event
10	Security Alert	3.6m	Home/car alarm related event

This first-ever detailed evaluation uncovers some surprising key facts. One big surprise is that 174.1 million robocalls involved attempts from prisoners to get through to people outside of the prison, or were related to payments for those calls. Given approximately 2.2 million people in prisons or county jails, this works out to nearly 2.5 attempted robocalls per prisoner per day. A bit less surprising is that so many people are using number-forwarding services, which call them to announce an incoming call, so they can choose whether or not to accept it.

Consumers Growing Weary of Top Scam Calls

In contrast, the least wanted calls are scams. The top scams by frequency are mostly financial in nature, designed to trick personal information out of consumers, such as their credit card numbers or Social Security numbers. Below are the Top 10 scam categories from January and their estimated volumes.

Rank	Scam Name	Volume	Recording
1	Interest Rate Scam	80.1m	"0% interest rates because of good card behavior"
2	Credit Card Issues	70.5m	"Problem with your card and need info to reset:
3	Student Loan Scams	76.2m	"Forgive/lower student debt with info to validate"
4	Business Loan Scams	36.3m	"Preapproved for large business loan"
5	Travel Scam	28.0m	"Free/discount trip requires payment"
6	Search Engine Scams	26.2m	"Your listing has a problem"
7	Preapproved Loan Scams	22.2m	"Ready to wire you money – just need your info"
8	Utility Scams	12.2m	"Save money – just need your info"
9	Debt Reduction Scams	3.9m	"Can free you from all your debt"
10	Easy Money Scams	3.6m	"Our scheme is making tons of money…cheap to join"

How This Analysis Was Done

To generate this first look at exactly which types of scam robocalls are being made in the U.S., YouMail relied on its patent-pending communication fingerprinting technology to identify and categorize robocalls made to its substantial user base. This technology can detect whether a voicemail message left for a given phone number is similar to a voicemail message left to any other phone number, allowing YouMail not only to recognize when a phone number is an unwanted robocaller, but also to be able to recognize exactly what type of call is being made. This allows YouMail to determine the volume of each call to the YouMail user base. It then extrapolated that behavior across the country as a whole.

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, and delights other callers by instantly greeting, routing, and responding to them, personally and memorably, and even provides free conference calls 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.