Robocalls have increased to the highest level in years

2 hours ago 2

Americans receive tens of millions of unsolicited automated calls and texts each day, often intended to dupe them into forking over personal information or money.

That's the thrust of a new report by U.S. PIRG Education Fund, a consumer advocacy organization, which found that scam and telemarketing calls and texts have proliferated across the country, despite safeguards intended to prevent them. (Of the 9,242 phone companies that filed with the FCC as of Sept. 28, 2025, less than half have installed robocall-fighting software.)

Nationwide, Americans received an average of 2.56 billion robocalls a month from January to September. That's up from 2.14 billion a month in 2024, and the highest level in six years, according to PIRG's analysis of data from YouMail, one of the largest robocall-blocking companies.

Meanwhile, the volume of automated texts received by Americans has skyrocketed since 2021, when a government crackdown on robocalls led more telemarketers and scammers to shift to texts. Data from PIRG shows that the annual volume of robotexts received in 2024 was roughly 19 billion, nearly triple the approximately 7 billion robotexts received in 2021.

The predatory messages are a daily nuisance for many. About one-third of Americans say they get at least one scam phone call a day, while one-fifth say they receive one scam text every day, according to the Pew Research Center.

Types of scams

Roboscams come in many forms, as detailed in PIRG's report. Teresa Murray, consumer watchdog director at PIRG, said they usually stem from crime rings or dedicated scam operations whose mission is to extract personal information or get some kind of financial information or actual payment from victims.

"The calls and texts are low cost and high reward," she said in an email. "As long as some percentage keep working, the scammers will keep trying."

Examples of some common scams include:

Impersonating IRS, Banks
During tax season, bad actors pose as IRS officials or tax preparation companies. Many scammers impersonate banks and credit card companies to steal account information. Another common trap are calls and texts that incite fear about unpaid loan balances or offer dubious debt relief opportunities.

Package delivery
Package delivery scams have become very common, with fraudsters posing as the U.S. Postal Service, FedEx and UPS sending out messages that there was an issue with a delivery. Included in the text is a fake link, leading victims to pay money to ensure the fake package ends up in their hands.

While some escape the scams unscathed, many don't. According to Pew, approximately a quarter of Americans say they've given up personal information to scammers as a result a predatory phone call, text message or email.

How did the problem get so bad?

Scams are growing more sophisticated and easier to set up, thanks to artificial intelligence. According to PIRG, AI allows bots to send fraudulent texts to thousands of people at a time.

"The bad guys always seem to be several steps ahead of the regulators and phone companies," Murray said.

Scammers have employed AI voice-cloning tools to trick people into thinking they are talking to a friend, family member or government official.

Up until late 2023, robocalls had declined considerably, according to Alex Quilici, founder and CEO of YouMail, who is cited in the PIRG report. Over the last two years, however, the number of automated texts and calls has increased along with the cost of related scams for victims.

The amount of money lost to phone scams rose 16% from the first half of 2024 to the first half of 2025, according to the Federal Trade Commission. On average, victims lost $3,690 to scam robocalls and $1,452 to scam texts in the first half of 2025, PIRG found.

In 2019, Congress passed the TRACED Act, which directed the Federal Communications Commission to require phone companies to implement stricter technology to regulate robocalls, including caller ID authentication. To keep track of compliance, the FCC launched a robocall mitigation database where companies are supposed to detail their efforts to fight illegal robocalls on their networks.

But those efforts have been met with mixed success. As of Sept. 28, only 44% of phone companies have completely installed the mandated software and adopted anti-robocall policies, down from 47% in 2024, PIRG found.

"You'd think that — given that it's been more than 15 years since the first federal law to attack spam robocalls — we'd have seen more progress by now," the PIRG report authors write, "We still don't know whether to trust our caller ID and may worry we'll miss an important call if we don't answer."

Edited by Anne Marie D. Lee