5 Billion Robocalls in November Mark 11% Decline, Says YouMail Robocall Index

IRVINE, Calif., Dec. 4, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- Americans received just over 5 billion robocalls in November, an 11% decrease from October's all-time-record rate of nearly 5.7 billion robocalls. This decline was likely driven by the shorter calendar month and the Thanksgiving holiday week. Despite this decline, U.S. consumers have received just under 54 billion robocalls already this year, with one month still to go.

The month of November averaged over 167 million robocalls per day, or 1,936 robocalls per second. These latest monthly figures come from YouMail, a totally free robocall blocking app for mobile phones.

"It's nice to see November had fewer robocalls than October's record, but we're still over 5 billion robocalls per month, once again," said YouMail CEO Alex Quilici. "We all would like to see a meaningful, steady reduction in the robocall volume, but that's clearly not here yet."

The U.S. House is likely to soon approve an anti-robocall bill with backing from both chambers, increasing the likelihood that legislation cracking down on the scourge of robocalls will reach President Trump's desk before the end of the year.

All Categories of Calls Decrease in October

November's distribution of calls was roughly the same as October's figures, with scam and telemarketing calls together combining for nearly 60% of the total robocall volume in the month.

Type of Robocall	Estimated November Robocalls	Percentage November Robocalls
Scams	2.32 billion (-12%)	47%
Alerts and Reminders	1.1 billion (-12%)	22%
Payment Reminders	974 million (-11%)	19%
Telemarketing	620 million (-7%)	12%

Top Scam Robocalls in November 2019

In November, four types of scams exceeded more than 100 million calls each, with big declines in the number of Student Loan Scams (-47%) and Social Security Scams (-25%).

Here are the top 5 specific annoying telemarketing and/or scam calls that people received in the U.S. during November, which are all related to illegal lead generation for health insurance, scams around lowered interest rates, and illegal lead generation for debt reduction schemes. Remarkably, the single leading robocall campaign in November had well over 350 million calls, which by itself accounts for 7% of the total robocall volume. 

"Winners" in November 2019

The cities, area codes and states with the highest volumes of robocalls in November were similar to the past three months, though all the leaders experienced decreased volumes. 

These data are provided by YouMail, a free robocall blocking app for mobile phones. YouMail recently won the American Business Awards' Gold Stevie Award for Technical Innovation of the Year, and the YouMail app was named the nation's best robocall-blocking solution in a competition organized by Geoffrey Fowler of the Washington Post.

YouMail blocks unwanted robocallers by making sure the user's phone doesn't ring, and then plays an out-of-service message that leads them to think they dialed an invalid number. YouMail identifies problematic numbers and robocalls using a combination of its recently patented audio fingerprinting technology, call patterns, and consumer feedback.

YouMail provides the YouMail Robocall Index to estimate robocall volume across the country and for specific area codes every month. This estimate is formed by extrapolating from the behavior of the billions of calls YouMail has handled for its users, and these statistics are regularly cited by the FCC as a definitive source for national data trends.  

For a full ranking of cities, states and area codes, as well as details on the behavior of robocallers in each area code, please see http://robocallindex.com. To listen to actual voice messages left by robocallers, please visit the YouMail Directory. To join the YouMail Robocall Index mailing list, please write to [email protected].

About YouMail, Inc.

YouMail, Inc. provides imaginative, intelligent, cloud-based telecommunication services. These include its free app-based service to block robocalls, and its premium call management services for people who use their mobile phone for business. YouMail's services free users from limitations of their mobile phone or carrier – protecting against unwanted calls, helping them handle high volumes of mobile calls, unifying virtual numbers with their cell number, and providing personalized answering experiences for their callers. YouMail has stopped over a billion robocalls, has given hundreds of millions of callers the experience they deserve, and has delighted millions of users.  The YouMail Robocall Index™, 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.

Contact:

Rohan Notaney for YouMail
Lumina Communications
[email protected]
650-814-9651

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SOURCE YouMail, Inc.