If it feels like you’ve gotten more spam calls than usual this year, it’s not your imagination – over two-thirds of Americans report receiving more spam calls in 2024 than in 2023. WhistleOut analyzed data about robocalling in the U.S. and surveyed 1,000 adults about how they’re handling the increase in spam. While robocalls are widespread, not every state suffers equally:
Top 10 Worst States for Robocalling in 2024 (based on annual # of robocalls and robocalls per person):
- Louisiana: 1,557,681,800 (339/person)
- Georgia: 3,345,440,200 (307/person)
- South Carolina: 1,309,819,500 (248/person)
- Alabama: 1,257,094,700 (248/person)
- Arkansas: 725,800,600 (238/person)
- Tennessee: 1,676,077,900 (238/person)
- Texas: 6,597,790,900 (220/person)
- Mississippi: 613,119,800 (209/person)
- North Carolina: 2,132,560,800 (199/person)
- Florida: 4,394,330,100 (198/person)
A Robocall is an automated call that delivers a pre-recorded message, usually selling a product, service, or political message. Using a computer dialer, they can place multiple calls to multiple numbers at one time.
According to Whistleout, there are several types of scams and scam calls to be aware of.
Here are some of the most popular phone scams and their definitions:
- Impostors: Calls pretending to come from a legitimate company or an individual that victims know in person, such as a friend or family member.
- Extortion: A call claiming to have negative information about victims that won’t be released if they do as the call says.
- Medical calls: Fraudulent calls related to the health care industry—such as a hospital or insurance company—asking for information.
- Debt consolidation or collecting: Calls targeting individuals with debt demanding they pay immediately or offering opportunities to reduce it.
- IRS: Calls mimicking the IRS informing victims they owe unexpected taxes that must be paid immediately.
- Lottery: The caller claims you’ve won the lottery and need to provide information to collect your winnings.
- Expiring warranty: A scam that tricks customers into purchasing a fake or largely useless extended warranty on their vehicle.
- Vacations: Calls telling victims they’ve won a free trip or attempting to sign individuals up for a timeshare presentation.
- Money-making opportunities: Calls from fake financial advisors offering incredible investment opportunities at deep discounts.
- IT assistance: A fraudulent call claiming to come from a major tech company—like Microsoft or Apple—saying there are issues with your computer or smartphone.
Louisiana at the top of the list makes sense because it’s one of the least proactive states for filing Do Not Call (DNC) registry complaints. On the other hand, Arkansas is surprising as it leads the nation in filing DNC complaints. It’s not clear why Arkansas has such high numbers of robocalls despite having the most DNC registrants…