Report: Unwanted Robocalls Volume Up Nearly 50% in 2019

The volume of unwanted robocalls soared again last year, as Americans received 106.8 billion of them — a 49% increase from the previous year, according to a new report from Transaction Network Services, Inc. (TNS). Unwanted robocalls include nuisance, scam or fraudulent robocalls.

Due to the rising complaints from customers, Sprint, Frontier and other carriers have taken action to block these calls, as Telecompetitor reported.

Dec. 10 was the top day for robocalls by volume, with 561 million unwanted calls, according to the report. Twelve percent of the robocalls occurred in October. In 2018, Tax Day (April 17) saw more unwanted robocalls than any other day of the year. For 2019, Tax Day didn’t break into the top 100 days for most unwanted robocalls.

Robocalls Volume
Among additional 2019 report findings:

• California telephone numbers originated more unwanted robocalls in 2019 than any other state, followed by Texas and Florida
• Wednesday was the highest volume day of the week, with 19% of weekly unwanted calls. Sunday was the lowest volume day, at 4% of weekly unwanted calls.
• Phoenix, Ariz., received more unwanted robocalls in 2019 than any other city.
• Seattle, Wash. telephone numbers originated more unwanted robocalls in 2019 than any other city, followed by Columbus, Ohio and Dallas, Texas.

“The industry, including carriers and regulators, made significant progress in authenticating calls in 2019, but work remains to be done to reduce the more than 200 million unwanted robocalls that Americans received every day last year,” said Bill Versen, Transaction Network Services chief product officer, in a prepared statement. “In addition to STIR/SHAKEN, this effort will require a layered approach that applies analytics and insights to provide data-driven recommendations on how to stop unwanted robocalls.”