Bottom line: App makers, wireless carriers and even the FCC have all made concerted efforts to combat robocalls and spam messages in recent years, but based on recent evidence from Truecaller, they're fighting a losing battle.
In the latest iteration of its spam and scam report, the Swedish-based company notes that as many as 59.49 million Americans have reported losing money as a result of phone scams over the trailing 12 months. That's up from 56 million during the same period a year earlier and is the highest number recorded since the company started keeping records seven years ago.
Truecaller said 60 percent of victims were duped by robocallers, and that the average lost was $502 - up from $351 over the previous year, or 43 percent. In total, scammers made away with an estimated $29.8 billion.
Scammers have been leveraging the ongoing pandemic to their advantage. According to Truecaller, 59 percent of Americans have received a spam call or text message related to Covid-19 in the last 12 months. Unsurprisingly, the firm fully expects the trend of Covid-19 related spam to increase next year.
In what might come as a surprise to some, Truecaller reports that younger men and women are more susceptible to phone scams than older citizens. And across all age brackets, men fall for scams more than women.