Americans received a whopping 55 billion robotexts in December, a 16% increase from November and a new single-month record, according to Robokiller Insights. Meanwhile, robocalls decreased to 5.3 billion, a 17% drop from the month prior.
There are multiple reasons why robotexts continue to climb. For one, scammers like to capitalize on trends with timely cons, such as delivery messages around the holidays. For another, the government’s commitment to tackling robocalls has forced scammers to shift their focus to robotexts, a decision that’s paid dividends lately. That all might be changing soon, however (more on this below).
Robocalls again took a back seat to robotexts in December, as they fell by 1 billion month-over-month. While it’s not unusual for robocalls to dip around the holidays, Robokiller believes the drop can be largely attributed to the FCC’s efforts to combat spam calls. In November, the bureau announced its first-ever nationwide shutdown of an international carrier, months after they mandated carriers to block car warranty robocalls. Then, in December, the FCC issued a public notice warning telecommunications companies to stop carrying student loan robocall traffic. The result? An 88% decrease in student loan scams.
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Spam texts have significantly outpaced robocalls since March 2022, surpassing 10 billion in each month and eclipsing 50 billion in December. Now the FCC is taking steps to solve the crisis. In a September press release, the agency said it will take comment on ideas to apply caller ID authentication standards to SMS and require carriers to actively identify and block illegal texts. Although relief from robotexts won’t happen overnight, Robokiller believes it’s a promising step in the effort to prevent these messages from reaching inboxes. In the short-term, chances are robotexts will continue to break records in early 2023.
Be on the lookout for Robokiller’s end-of-year phone spam and political message reports. Click here and here to read our previous reports.
- Don’t answer phone calls or texts from unknown numbers, especially those that call or text at odd hours.
- Don’t follow prompts like “Press 1” or click any links.
- Never provide personal information like banking details or other sensitive information.
- Download a spam text and call blocker like Robokiller to equip your phone with the latest technology to stop scams.
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