If you feel like you’re getting more and more robocalls, you’re probably right.
An astounding 26.3 billion robocalls were received in the United States last year, up 46% over the number of calls received in 2017, according to a new report from Hiya. The average person received 10 spam calls per month.
Hiya is a mobile app that screens calls for users and identifies those that are spam. It says it analyzed more than 11 billion calls last year.
Spammers target people in every state, but Texans seem to get hit the hardest. The top 10 area codes targeted by spammers include seven Texas area codes—in fact, all of the top five area codes are located in Texas. Specifically, the No. 1 targeted area code is 214 for Dallas. That is followed by Fort Worth, San Antonio, Austin, and Houston, respectively.
Another report by First Orion, an Arkansas company that also provides caller ID and blocking services, estimated that close to 50% of all of the calls made in 2019 will be scams. It got its data from analyzing 34 billion calls made with T-Mobile USA, its partner.
Last year, the FCC fined a Florida man $120 million for placing 97 million robocalls touting fake travel deals.
