Americans saw an increase in robocalls in October, receiving nearly 4.9 billion of them due to the presidential election. According to data released Friday, Nov. 8, by YouMail, October was the highest month in volume for robocalls since August 2023.
October’s nearly 5 billion robocalls were a 9.5% increase from September. October averaged 158.4 million robocalls per day, and included calls like this:
Hi, this is Jennifer. I’m an underwriter with our approval department. I’m just calling to let you know it appears you’ve been prequalified for a personal loan of up to $72,000 with payments starting as low as $5.30 a month.
Robocall message
YouMail said most of the increase was election-driven.
Telemarketing calls rose over 21% from September and scams jumped around 18%. Both types make up almost half of all October robocalls.
The Federal Trade Commission said robocalls are illegal when they are sales messages from companies that did not get written permission to call.
The agency is offering these steps on how to handle unwanted robocalls:
- Hang up. Don’t press any number or call back.
- Don’t trust caller ID. It can be faked.
- Get call blocking apps or services. This will help you get fewer robocalls.
- Report it. Tell the FTC at DoNotCall.gov.
YouMail said it determined its figures by reviewing robocall traffic attempts to get through to its millions of users on its robocall blocking app.
“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 statement.
Quilici said, with election season winding down, YouMail fully expects “to see volumes drop materially over the next few months.”