Hiya Says There Were 85B Robocalls Worldwide in 2018

Hiya has released [PDF] its first Global Robocall Radar Report, and the results are troubling. Global spam calls grew 325% to 85 billion calls in 2018 (via PRNewswire).

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That’s A Lot of Spam Calls

Hiya analyzed over 12 billion calls per month globally. The countries that get the most spam calls are: The U.K., Italy, France, Argentina, and the United States.

As spam calls continue to skyrocket globally, the demand for protection from unwanted phone calls has increased drastically. By combining industry-leading call spam detection with a solution that ensures calls from legitimate businesses are properly identified, it’s our mission to make sure everyone across the world can confidently answer their phone again.

Alex Algard, Hiya CEO
images of hiya app
Hiya’s app

Hiya provides a spam-blocker app and has partnerships with carriers like AT&T, T-Mobile, and OEMs like Samsung. In 2018 the app identified over 1.3 billion calls and was able to block over 425 million.

Most of the scam campaigns (I’m coining the word ‘scampaign’) involve five scams:

  • Bank Account Scam
  • Extortion/Kidnapping
  • Credit Card Scam
  • Wangiri Scam (One Ring)
  • Neighbor Scam

You can also read the U.S.-specific report here [PDF].

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