The number of scam call attempts per month more than doubled from the start of 2021 to the end, according to a report that was released yesterday by T-Mobile. The cellular carrier revealed that there were 2.5 billion scam call attempts in November, compared with 1.1 billion in January. Also, the most frequent reason why you received scam calls was for fake car warranties, which accounts for 51% of all scam calls this year.
Scam calls have increased 116% since 2020, according to the report, growing from 9.8 billion last year to 21 billion in 2021.
Interestingly enough, scammers don’t like to work weekends, either. On average, there were 80 million scam calls on weekdays, and the volume of scam calls decreased by 85% on weekends, according to T-Mobile’s analysis of calls through its networks. While the lowest number of scam calls were recorded on Easter Sunday, there was a noticeable uptick in scam call volume in the weeks between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Starting Thursday — two days before Christmas this year — scam call volume will decline.
Dallas/Fort Worth was the metropolitan area that received the most scam calls, helping put Texas at the top of the list for states that were the most targeted. After Texas was Florida, Arizona, and Georgia.
T-Mobile said it has blocked 21 billion calls through early December. That is the number that worries most participants in the accounts receivable management industry. Call blocking technology can prevent calls from legitimate sources — like debt collectors — from being connected to consumers. And consumers can report legitimate sources as fraudulent or scams, flagging numbers that are not being used to try and take advantage of consumers. T-Mobile’s technology, for example, is blocking 700 calls per second, the company claims.
Other than car warranties, the other most popular types of scam calls were ones from the Social Security office, wireless provider, car insurance company, or package delivery.
