NEW YORK, Feb. 22, 2021 /PRNewswire/
-- RoboKiller, the app that eliminates 99% of spam calls
and text messages, released today their annual Robocall Report
revealing the key spam call and text trends of the past year. 2020
was a unique and challenging year for everyone, scammers included.
Global quarantine orders early in the year helped drive 6.7 billion
fewer spam calls in 2020 versus 2019, but scammers were quick to
adapt. Spam texting is now on a dramatic rise, with total scam
texts of 55.4 billion exceeding the total number of spam calls in
2020. However, spam call volumes returned to normal levels exiting
the year.
2020 Key Findings:
- The COVID-19 global pandemic led to a 50% decline in
spam calls from April to June 2020.
However, by September 2020, spam
calls were back to their normal levels of 5 billion robocalls per
month.
- In total, Americans lost $319
million to COVID-19 related fraud over the last 12
months, according to the FTC.
- Americans received an estimated 16
billion political text messages in 2020 - 9.8
billion were Republican-related, and 4.6 billion were
Democrat-related.
- Spam call volume remained at a normal level post the end of
summer rebound. Between October and December, Americans received an
average of 5.8 billion spam calls a month - a 17% increase from
July - September. RoboKiller anticipates this number will grow in
2021.
TOP SPAM CALLED STATES IN 2020:
- Texas: 6.3B
- Alabama: 1B
- South Carolina: 1B
- Arkansas: 636M
- Arizona: 1.4B
The top state targeted by scammers was Texas, with 6.3 billion spam calls - a 6%
increase from 2019. Other states like Arizona saw a 27% yearly increase in spam
calls, while Louisiana received
less robocalls in 2020 at 827 million.
TOP FIVE PHONE SCAMS IN 2020:
- Social Security: 14%
- Vehicle Warranty: 12%
- Religious: 11%
- Vacation Offer: 10%
- Credit Card Offer: 9%
Social Security topped scam categories in 2020 at 14% replacing
2019's top category of Credit Card Offers. The shift could be
explained by the events of 2020 that caused more Americans to rely
on unemployment, stimulus payments, and other government
programs.
54 BILLION SPAM CALLS, $3.3
BILLION IN CONSUMER LOSSES
Despite low spam call volume in the first half of the year,
consumers still suffered severe financial losses. In 2020, 31% of
consumers reporting fraud noted they were contacted via phone call,
and 27% reported they were contacted via text.
The financial impact of robocalls:
- 2.2 million fraud reports filed
- $3.3 billion losses
to fraud
- 31% of fraud reporters said they were contacted via
phone call
- 27% of fraud reporters said they were contacted via
text
- Consumers lost $319
million to COVID-19 related fraud
PHONE SPAM PREDICTIONS FOR 2021
Based on recent trends, RoboKiller expects scammers will design
smarter, more believable phone scams as they attempt to recover
financial losses from 2020. This trend could potentially result in
higher annual consumer losses to phone fraud and more unwanted
calls and texts if consumers do not protect themselves. RoboKiller
predicts spam texts could become more prevalent and reach 90
billion by the end of 2021, while spam calls will likely reach an
annual total of about 70 billion robocalls.
In 2021, RoboKiller will continue to advocate against phone
fraud, help shut down scam operations, and invest heavily in robust
spam text and spam call blocking technology to stop dangerous scams
from reaching consumers.
About RoboKiller:
RoboKiller is one of the top iPhone
utility apps in the US, helping users block over 500M telemarketers and robocalls from calling
their phones. With over 5 billion robocalls made to US consumers
each month, phone spam continues to be the #1 complaint to the FCC,
driving hundreds of thousands of RoboKiller app downloads per
month. RoboKiller, a Teltech brand, is a division of Mosaic Group,
an IAC Company (NASDAQ: IAC).
RoboKiller is available for download on the Apple App Store and
Google Play. To learn more about RoboKiller, visit
www.robokiller.com.
RoboKiller employs an unbiased, anonymous machine-learning
based approach to understand political message trends. The
estimates above are based on RoboKiller's proprietary data and user
feedback and are for information purposes only. Robocall trends,
text trends, and featured data are not a representation of any
single political party, person, or organization's campaign
efforts.
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SOURCE RoboKiller