NEW YORK, March 9, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- RoboKiller,
the app that eliminates 99% of spam calls and text messages,
reveals 5.6 billion spam calls were received by Americans during
February 2021, a 10% increase in
robocalls from January 2021 and a 26%
increase compared to February 2020.
Phone scammers are back with a vengeance after 2020 crippled
their ability to place billions of spam calls - severely impacting
their overall financial earnings. According to RoboKiller, 2020 saw
a 6.7 billion drop in spam calls from 2019 due to the COVID-19
pandemic, but since September 2020,
spam calls have returned to normal levels of 5 billion spam calls
or more a month. A whopping 5.8 billion spam texts in February 2021 also indicate phone scammers are
adopting new methods of reaching Americans' phones - and aren't
slowing down there either.
KEY FINDINGS IN FEBRUARY 2021
Top Phone Scams:
In February, the top robocall scam was vehicle warranty-related
at 23% of total spam calls - a 9% increase from January 2021, followed by health
insurance-related calls at 9% and vacation-related scams at
6.5%.
Top Five Most Spam-Called States:
State
|
Total Estimated
Spam Calls
|
Estimated Spam
Calls Per Person
|
Texas
|
659,217,366
|
27.56
|
Georgia
|
235,602,415
|
26.88
|
Ohio
|
261,173,839
|
26.81
|
North
Carolina
|
205,934,233
|
23.80
|
Florida
|
397,214,426
|
22.38
|
Robocalls New Partner In Crime: Spam Text Messages
Since January of last year, Americans have been receiving on
average 5 billion spam texts per month. In recent months, there has
been a steady 15% increase in spam text volumes, reaching all-time
highs of 5.8 billion a month as of February
2021. That is roughly 21 spam texts per person!
Top Five Most Spam-Texted States:
State
|
Total Estimated
Spam Text Messages
|
Estimated Spam
Texts Per Person
|
Alaska
|
68,369,248
|
114.96
|
Maine
|
49,550,830
|
44.42
|
New York
|
677,968,043
|
41.63
|
Nevada
|
100,956,813
|
39.97
|
West
Virginia
|
54,437,914
|
36.17
|
What's in store for 2021?
While it's still early in the year, RoboKiller predicts that
spam calls could reach 70 billion by the end of 2021 and result in
higher consumer losses to fraud. As noted in the 2020 Insights
Report, RoboKiller predicts spam texts will become more prevalent
and have the potential to reach 90 billion by the end of the
year.
Tips on how to stop phone scams:
- Don't answer phone calls from unknown phone numbers, especially
those that call at odd hours.
- Never provide personal, banking, or sensitive information over
the phone to any caller.
- Don't follow any prompts like "Press 1" or click any
links.
- Watch out for text messages that contain misspelled words, URLs
that contain a mix of numbers and letters.
- Download a spam call and text blocker like RoboKiller to equip
your phone with the latest phone-scam-fighting technology. Apps
like RoboKiller use global databases of millions of known phone
scams to prevent these callers from reaching you in the first
place.
RoboKiller continues to advocate against phone fraud, help shut
down scam operations, and invest heavily in spam text and spam call
blocking technology to stop dangerous scams from reaching
consumers. In 2020, RoboKiller won a Webby Award for Technical
Achievement, Media Excellence Award for Best Mobile Product, and
Best in Biz Awards for App of the Year, Most Innovative Product of
the Year, and Consumer Product of the Year.
RoboKiller is available for download on the Apple App Store and
Google Play. To learn more about RoboKiller, visit
www.robokiller.com.
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).
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SOURCE RoboKiller