The calls we love to hate plague residents of some states
more than others.
Chris Kissell • March 3, 2021
2020 delivered a rare bit
of good news when it came to the scourge of robocalls. Such annoying
interruptions decreased by 10% last year.
We don’t blame you for
not noticing — robocalls still made up about one-quarter of all calls during
the year, according to an annual report from
RoboKiller, an app that lets you get back
at spam callers.
A total of 54 billion
robocalls were made last year, an average of 200 per person. Some places fared
worse than others. The five states that received the most spam calls were:
·
Texas: 6.3 billion calls
·
Arizona: 1.4 billion
·
Alabama: 1 billion
·
South Carolina: 1 billion
·
Arkansas: 636 million
While the number of
robocalls increased in those states, it fell nationwide. RoboKiller says the
decline was largely a result of the coronavirus pandemic, as the average
monthly robocall volume fell about 10% between January and April. According to
the report:
“The spam call decrease
from January to April 2020 aligns with the quarantine and shelter-in-place
orders of early COVID-19. These shutdowns severely limited access to the technology
needed for scammers to make large volumes of calls.”
Not only did the overall
number of robocalls fall, but spam calls made up a smaller percentage of all
calls, dipping by 50% compared with 2019.
Still, the end result of
robocalls actually may have been more damaging in 2020 than in 2019. According
to the Federal Trade
Commission, Americans lost more than $3.3 billion to fraud in 2020,
a jump from $1.8 billion the previous year.
RoboKiller says scams
related to COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, played a role in
boosting the amount of fraud loss last year.
Unfortunately, the trend
toward fewer robocalls looks like it will not last. RoboKiller notes that once
officials began to lift quarantines related to the pandemic, robocall volume
began to increase again.
Looking for more ways to
silence unwanted calls? Check out our tips in “8 Steps to Put an
End to Robocalls.”
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https://www.moneytalksnews.com/states-that-get-the-most-robocalls/
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