Texas had the most robocalls in the nation last month with roughly 636-million calls--whether they be legitimate or scammers.
So far in 2019, Americans have received 49 billion robocalls - more than were received in all of 2018.
"Robocalls jumped 25-30 percent this month over last month. Scammers started calling a lot more and then we saw the same thing for legitimate robocallers, like payment reminders as well," said YouMail CEO Alex Quilici.
He said healthcare scams have tripled in volume over the last few months.
"The top calling campaign in America is the health insurance campaign where someone is illegally calling people to generate leads to brokers to try to sign up people for policies," said Quilici.
Other popular scams include those based on interest rates, student loans, social security, and warranties. And these are just the most popular, each claiming over 100 million illegal calls made.
He added download an app on your phone, like YouMail, to stop robocalls.
All Categories of Calls Increase in October
Type of Robocall
Estimated October Robocalls
Percentage of October Robocalls
Alerts and Reminders
1.248 billion (+19%)
22% (-1%)
Payment Reminders
1.093 million (+25%)
19%
Telemarketing
671 million (+24%)
12%
Scams
2.65 billion (+32%)
47% (+1%)
Top Scam Robocalls in October 2019
In October, five types of scams exceeded more than 100 million calls each, with Health-Related Scams up 29% and Interest Rate scams up 13% over September.
Rank
Type of Scam
Estimated October Robocalls
Summary of Scam
1
Health-Related Scams
473.3m (+21%)
Identity theft/scam payments/illegal
solicitations
2
Interest Rate Scams
236.3.m (+26%)
Identify theft/financial scams
3
Student Loan Scams
218.5m (+24%)
Identify theft/scam payments
4
Social Security Scams
153.7m (+7%)
Identify theft/scam payments
5
Warranty Scams
105.1m (-17%)
Scam payments/illegal solicitations
Here are the top 5 specific annoying telemarketing and/or scam calls that people received in the U.S. during October, which are all related to illegal lead generation for health insurance or scams related to lowered interest rates.
1
Health Insurance – Pre-Approvals Ready
209.5m
2
Health Insurance – Currently Accepting Enrollments
79.0m
3
Interest Rate – Visa Alert System
72.8m
4
Interest Rate – Member Services Department
72.1m
5
Interest Rate - Preapproved as a Valued Customer
45.9m
The top 5 campaigns added up to over 320 million collective robocalls in October, marking a big 50% increase from the 320 million seen in September.
"Winners" in October 2019
The cities, area codes and states with the highest volumes of robocalls in September were similar to the volumes from August, though all the leaders experienced decreased volumes.
City with the Most Robocalls:
Atlanta, GA (221.0 million, +27%)
City with the Most Robocalls/Person:
Washington, DC (57.4/person, +20%)
Area Code with the Most Robocalls:
404 in Atlanta, GA (93.0 million, +26%)
Area Code with the Most Robocalls/Person:
404 in Atlanta, GA (76.1/person, +26%)
State with the Most Robocalls:
Texas (636 million, +25%)
State with the Most Robocalls/Person:
Louisiana (35.1/person, +22%)