Fraud tactics and the growing prevalence of AI scams
In the first six months of 2024, Hiya flagged nearly 20 billion calls as suspected spam – more than 107 million spam calls everyday. The data showed spam flag rates of more than 20% of unknown calls (calls coming from outside of someone’s address book) in 25 out of the 42 countries – with some spam flag rates above 50%.
The first half of 2024 also saw an increase in AI deepfake scams, which use AI-generated voice-cloning technology to impersonate people and/or organizations. Ahead of the primary election in January, voters in New Hampshire received robocalls impersonating Joe Biden using an AI-generated voice.
As AI tools become more powerful and accessible, researchers anticipate that voice-cloning impersonation scam tactics will continue to be on the rise in 2024 and beyond.
Medicare and insurance scams continue to target Americans
Americans received an average of 14 spam calls per month in the first six months of 2024. The rate of spam flag rate varies state by state, with Oklahoma, Indiana, and Ohio having the highest spam rates in H1, while Alaska, New York, and North Dakota had the lowest.
Health insurance and medicare scams were popular in the US between January and June, followed by other insurance scams, including auto, home, and life. Tax scams were also rising in the first help and steadily increased leading up to the April 15 tax filing deadline.
France and Spain continue to have the worst spam across Europe for past seven quarters
More than half of all unknown calls in France and Spain were unwanted – with spam flag rates of 53% and 51%, respectively. On average, French and Spanish residents receive more than 12 nuisance or fraud calls monthly. Despite similar spam flag rates, Spain has a bigger fraud problem, as 12% of unknown calls are fraud compared to 5% in France.
The most commonly reported fraud calls in Spain were utility and mobile phone sales scams. In February, a new TikTok scam emerged as users reported robocalls offering 800 Euros daily to watch and like videos on TikTok. Utility related scams, including electricity suppliers and solar energy, were the top scams in the first half of 2024 in France. Telemarketing calls, banking-related scam calls and package delivery scams were also common.
UK residents are targeted with tax agency and Amazon scams
The UK had a spam flag rate of 28% of all unknown calls, and 3% of those calls were fraud in H1. Popular phone scams across the UK in the first half of the year included tax scams, specifically impersonating Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs, Amazon scams and credit card scams. Cryptocurrency, energy-related and immigration scams were also on the rise.
Brazillians receive the most spam calls per month across the globe
Brazillians received an average 26 spam calls per month in the first half of 2024. More than half of the unidentified calls in the country were spam (51%) with 13% of those being fraud. Banking scams are the most popular phone scam across Brazil with Hiya users reporting scammers impersonating a bank and calling to confirm personal information and passwords.
Amazon scams surged across Canada
While Canadians only received an average of 4 spam calls per person each month, 7% of those calls were fraud. In 2023, Amazon scams were the most popular scam targeting Canadians and continued into the first half of 2024 – hitting a peak in mid-April. Scams impersonating government officials were also popular in H1 followed by credit card and cryptocurrency scams.
“Phone fraud, spam and the emerging use of AI-driven deepfake voice scams are escalating threats to the voice channel, affecting every phone user across every major market,” shared Kush Parikh, President of Hiya. “The voice channel deserves the same level of vigilance that enterprises apply to cybersecurity. In fact, voice security must be swiftly integrated into cybersecurity strategies, as it represents a significant vulnerability in protecting enterprises.”