Warranty Scam Robocalls Increase 10 Percent in May 2020

Craig Randall • Scams, Robocalls • June 16, 2020

13.7 million more extended warranty calls vs. April 2020 according to YouMail Robocall Index

According to the YouMail Robocall Index, warranty scam robocalls were up 10 percent in May 2020 over the prior month. An estimated total of 149.5 million extended warranty robocalls were placed in May, a total of nearly 5 million illegal warranty robocalls each day.

The increase in warranty calls was greater than the overall increase of robocalls, which is pegged at about 3% higher over the prior month, growth which is attributed to an additional day in May versus April.

May was similar to April by registering the same two types of illegal calls that exceeded 100 million calls for the month: Health-Related Scams and Car Warranty Scams.

According to YouMail, "Americans received just under 3.0 billion robocalls in May, a 3% increase from April. However, the number of calls per day in May was almost identical to the number of calls per day in April, again averaging just over 95 million calls per day, or roughly 1,104 calls per second. This means the slight increase was simply due to one more day in the month of May versus April. The calls are still 48% below the all-time monthly peak of 5.7 billion calls in October 2019."

"May's continuing steady volume of robocalls shows that COVID-19 continues to stem the tide of robocalls," said YouMail CEO Alex Quilici. "However, we fully expect robocalls to increase in line with decreasing lockdowns and an improving economy."

YouMail

YouMail blocks unwanted robocallers by making sure the user's phone doesn't ring, and then plays an out-of-service message that leads them to think they dialed an invalid number. YouMail identifies problematic numbers and robocalls using a combination of its recently patented audio fingerprinting technology, call patterns, and consumer feedback.

YouMail provides the YouMail Robocall Index to estimate robocall volume across the country and for specific area codes every month. This estimate is formed by extrapolating from the behavior of the billions of calls YouMail has handled for its users, and these statistics are regularly cited by the FCC as a definitive source for national data trends.