Robocalls and scam texts surge to six-year high, watchdog warns

Americans are getting more robocalls and scam texts than ever before.

(NBC)- If it feels like your phone never stops buzzing, you’re not imagining it. Americans are getting more robocalls and scam texts than ever before.

The Public Interest Research Group (PIRG) says spam robocalls are up 20 percent, reaching a six-year high. That’s an additional 420 million calls and texts every month as scammers use artificial intelligence to impersonate real voices and trick victims. Social media is filled with frustrated users venting about nonstop calls.

Teresa Murray, consumer watchdog director for PIRG, says even a small success rate for scammers can lead to massive profits.
“They only need just a teensy, tiny percentage of them to work, and all of a sudden they’ve got thousands of dollars that they didn’t have a couple of minutes before,” she said.

The average victim now loses nearly $3,700, according to PIRG research.

Despite federal rules requiring companies to install caller ID authentication and spam filters, researchers say less than half of the nation’s 9,200 phone providers have done so.

PIRG also found that nearly one in three Americans gets a robocall every single day.

“They don’t care if it’s 7 o’clock in the morning. They don’t care if it’s 9 o’clock at night,” another user said on TikTok.

Experts say the best defense is simple:

• Don’t answer calls or texts from numbers you don’t recognize.

• Never share personal or financial information with unknown callers.