17.6M Americans Lost an Estimated $8.6 Billion in Phone Fraud Over the Past Year, According to New Survey from Truecaller

Truecaller, the world’s largest verified mobile phone community, today announced findings from its first study on the impact of phone scams on U.S. adults. Two online surveys were conducted by Harris Poll on behalf of Truecaller in 2014, with questions covering the frequency of fraud and suspected fraud calls, the amount of money lost, and steps Americans are taking to protect themselves.
 
Phone scams cost Americans billions every year
 
According to one survey, approximately 17.6 million Americans were victims of a phone scam in the past 12 months and lost an average of $488.80. This accounts for a massive scam that costs Americans approximately $8.6 billion annually, and breaks down to an average of $35.60 for each U.S. adult.*
 
The survey also showed Americans had a greater chance of being targeted on a mobile phone than on a home phone or landline. Of those who lost money in a phone scam, nearly half (49 percent) reported losing money via a mobile phone scam compared to 36 percent who reported losing money on a home phone/landline. (Note: 29 percent were not sure what type of phone they lost money on). Overall, men were far more likely to lose money in phone scam, with victims being 71 percent male and 29 percent female.
 
“$8.6 billion lost per year through U.S. phone fraud is simply a staggering number and shows the need for greater vigilance among Americans when it comes to protecting themselves from scam artists operating over the phone,” Truecaller CEO Alan Mamedi said. “We think the actual dollar number lost may be even higher due to factors like unreported fraud and unchecked phone bills even in instances when owners received a spam call.”
 
Findings show Americans aren’t doing enough to protect themselves from mobile fraud
 
Alongside the survey on how much phone scams cost Americans annually, a separate survey looked at how fraud affects smartphone owners. Despite the potential to be targeted by fraudsters, many smartphone owners reported that they don’t take any precautions to protect themselves from phone scams, indicating scammers have a huge potential population of victims.
 
When asked how they protect themselves against phone scams, smartphone owners answered as follows:
 
· 64 percent never answer a call from an unknown number
· 31 percent search online for suspicious numbers before returning calls
· 20 percent do nothing
· 16 percent use a caller ID app (different from what their smartphone came with)
· 4 percent do something else
 
The lack of precautions from many smartphone owners leaves them susceptible to popular types of phone scams, which seem to be increasing at an alarming rate.  Suspicious calls can include instances where scammers pretend to be IRS agents or debt collectors, callers who spoof your own phone number calling you, and those who initiate fraud via “one-ring scams,” where consumers are tricked into dialing numbers that automatically start billing them for every minute they remain on the phone.
 
Of smartphone owners who received calls from scammers or suspicious or unknown numbers in the past 12 months:
 
· 33 percent never checked their phone bill
· 21 rarely checked their phone bill
· 20 percent sometimes checked their phone bill
· 16 percent always checked their phone bill
· 10 percent often checked their phone bill
 
The study also showed that of those who had checked their phone bills, 37 percent found fraudulent charges. A percentage of fraud so high indicates that a great deal of those who hadn’t checked their bills may also have been victims and simply were not aware.
 
“We’re seeing that a lot of smartphone owners are not taking some very essential steps to avoid becoming a phone scam victim. This amounts to huge cost in time and money if they do get scammed and need to contest charges, or worse, handle a case of identity theft,” Mamedi continued. “Scam artists are only getting smarter about how to conceal their identity and consumers will need better and easier ways to prevent scams.”
 
Men have a higher probability of being targeted by scammers and tend to be more cautious about falling victim to one
 
According to the second survey, male smartphone owners indicated a higher average of unknown or suspicious calls per year, 21.9 calls versus 17.6 calls for women. By many metrics, men took more precautions to prevent scams on smartphones than women. When asked about precautions they took to protect themselves from fraud, the survey showed the following:
 
· Men who received calls from unknown callers/spammers on a smartphone in the past 12 months more likely than women to always or often check their phone bill after a suspicious call (32 percent vs. 21 percent)
· Women who have received calls from unknown callers/spammers on a smartphone in the past 12 months are more likely than men to never check their phone bill after receiving one of these calls (37 percent vs. 29 percent)
 
Survey Methodology
Two surveys were conducted online within the United States by Harris Poll on behalf of Truecaller via its Quick Query omnibus product. The first one was conducted June 9 and 11, 2014 among 2,059 adults aged 18 and older. The next was conducted from July 18-22, 2014 among 2,040 adults ages 18 and older. These online surveys are not based on a probability sample and therefore no estimate of theoretical sampling error can be calculated. For complete survey methodology, including weighting variables, please contact
carter@vscconsulting.com
 
About Truecaller
Truecaller is the world’s largest verified mobile phone community, dedicated to helping users make the right call. Truecaller’s dynamic community of more than 70 million users is always evolving and is committed to maintaining the integrity of the community by crowdsourcing information to help identify spam callers and verify users. Headquartered in Stockholm, Truecaller is backed by Sequoia Capital and was founded in 2009 by Nami Zarringhalam and Alan Mamedi. Truecaller is available on all internet-enabled devices and on the web. For more information visit www.truecaller.com
 
About Nielsen & The Harris Poll
On February 3, 2014, Nielsen acquired Harris Interactive and The Harris Poll.  Nielsen Holdings N.V. (NYSE: NLSN) is a global information and measurement company with leading market positions in marketing and consumer information, television and other media measurement, online intelligence and mobile measurement. Nielsen has a presence in approximately 100 countries, with headquarters in New York, USA and Diemen, the Netherlands. For more information, visit www.nielsen.com.
 
*2013 U.S. Census data showed a U.S. population of 316,128,839, 76.7 percent of whom were adults 18 and over. Based on about 7 percent of adult survey respondents reporting losing money in a phone scam, the total number of phone scam victims in the U.S. was estimated to be 17.6 million. The average phone scam victim in the survey reported losing $488.80. This equates to an average of $35.60 among all adult Americans (including those who didn’t report losing any money in a phone scam).

Contact Information

Carter Rogers

PR Contact

VSC for Truecaller

(1) (415) 677-9125

carter@vscconsulting.com