Consumers received almost 4.9 billion robocalls last month, an increase of 9.5% over September and 6.5% over last October, according to robocall research from YouMail. Nevertheless, the researchers said the news for the year is positive overall.
The firm said that there have been 43.7 billion robocalls so far this year, a 3.3% decline from the same point in 2023. The October increase likely was caused by the runup to the elections, said YouMail.
The company offers technology that blocks spam calls.
In real numbers, YouMail found that October averaged 158.4 million robocalls per day and 1,833 per second. That was an increase from September’s 149.4 million calls per day and 1,729 per second.
The research tracked four types of robocalls and compared them to September:
- Notification robocalls decreased 3.3% to 1.53 billion. Their percentage of the total amount for the month dropped 4% to 31%.
- Payment reminders rose 7.8% to 1.01 billion and remained at 21% of the total.
- Telemarketing robocalls rose 21.5% to 1.77 billion and rose to 36% of the total, up 3%.
- Scam calls grew 18.2% to a total of 0.59 billion. These calls represented 12% of the total, which was 1% more than they did in September.
YouGov labeled calls focused on personal loans as “October 2024’s Most Annoying Robocalling Campaign.”
“We’ve seen a big jump in robocalls over the past few months, however 2024 continues to be 3% lower than 2023,” YouMail CEO Alex Quilici said in a press release. “It also looks like most of the increase is election driven, so we fully expect to see volumes drop materially over the next few months.”
Almost 4.5 billion robocalls were made in September. That was 0.6% higher than the number of robocalls during August. YouMail said September is the first month of 2024 with a year-over-year increase.
