IRVINE, CA — (Marketwired) — 04/28/16 — Every second, 963 robocalls — automated phone calls that deliver a pre-recorded message or connect with a telemarketer — are made somewhere in America. In total, an estimated 2.5 billion robocalls were made last month to U.S. phones, according to the latest report released today by , the leading provider of intelligent telecommunications services for consumers and small businesses. This number is up by 13.3 percent over the number of robocalls reported in February.
Several of the states that held presidential primaries in March or April (including Florida, New York, Georgia, Illinois and Texas) saw greatly increased robocall activity in March — to the tune of 100 million calls. In fact, all of the –Super Tuesday– states realized an increase in robocalls during the month of March, ranging from just under one percent to more than 16 percent. Though political robocalls may be legal and permitted by the FCC, these unsolicited messages have a negative impact on recipients — and open the door for scammers and fraudsters.
When it comes to the types of robocalls placed, 17 of the top 20 robocallers on this month–s report are in the business of payment reminders or debt collection. Bank, retail and student loan debt collectors topped the list in March — as they did in February — and have gotten even more prolific, with the Top 20 robocallers making 181.2 million calls — up from the 165 million calls they made last month.
Federal health insurance providers were the only other group to crack the March Top Ten list, with over 12.5 million calls made.
For the fourth straight month, Atlanta has the dubious distinction of being the most robocalled city. Over 110.4 million robocalls were placed to Atlanta residents in March — that averages out to 40.3 robocalls per person based on the city–s population — a nine percent increase over the previous month. The other cities that made the top ten list are, in order: New York, Chicago, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, Baltimore, Newark, Philadelphia and Detroit.
“Placing your number on the National Do Not Call List does not guarantee that robocalls will stop,” notes Alex Quilici, CEO of YouMail. “To fight robocallers effectively, call blocking technology needs to prevent the robocalling machines that spew out tens of millions of scam calls a day — and at YouMail, we are doing just that. With our intelligent answering service, you–re not powerless against time-wasting robocallers.”
YouMail works on Apple iOS and Android-based smartphones, as well as landlines. The service includes a proprietary technology called that detects Robocall call patterns, including those generated by spoofing systems, and tricks those callers into thinking that the subscriber–s number has been disconnected. It–s more effective than using the “block” function on an iPhone or “reject” list on an Android phone, which only enables you to block one number at a time. However, callers, such as a debt collector or scammer, may have hundreds of different numbers they use to call people. Blocking those one at a time is a game of cat and mouse. YouMail, however, convinces those callers that the number they called is disconnected, which gets YouMail subscribers taken off lists completely, so they don–t get called again by any of the phone numbers a particular company or group of companies might use.
Despite the pervasiveness of robocalls, there was no definitive data made available that gives consumers or lawmakers a sense for how big the problem really is — until YouMail created the Robocall Index. YouMail–s Robocall Index is a free monthly report that tracks robocall volumes across the U.S. The report highlights the top phone numbers robocalls are placed from, the most robocalled cities, and the most common types of robocalls. The data is based on callers blocked and/or reported as spam by millions of YouMail subscribers nationwide, and on YouMail–s algorithms for detecting automatically dialed calls. Having answered billions and billions of calls for its users, YouMail is uniquely positioned to aggregate this national call data for the Robocall Index.
is the leading provider of intelligent, cloud-based telecommunication services. The company–s flagship service provides an intelligent answering service that replaces the subscriber–s voicemail on , , and phones. Headquartered in Irvine, California, YouMail, Inc. was founded in 2007 and is privately funded. To learn more, please visit , check out the , follow on , , and like on .
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Stephanie Olsen
Lages & Associates
(949) 453-8080
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