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Telemarketers are no longer waiting until you’re sitting down for dinner. They’re calling early—and often.
According to Federal Communications Commission (FCC) data, spam calls most often occur in the morning or early afternoon. In 2023, Americans reported more than 95,000 unwanted calls to the agency, which regulates broadcast, radio, and other forms of communication. As of 2024, unwanted calls remain the most common complaint the FCC receives.
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The Federal Trade Commission reports the number of complaints in 2023 marked a five-year low. Private companies that provide tools for mitigating and tracking robocalls report a much higher estimated volume: between 4.5 and 5 billion monthly spam calls.
Spokeo analyzed the 2023 consumer complaint data compiled by the FCC to illustrate the times of day people are most likely to get a spam call. The data is self-reported and does not represent all unwanted calls.
According to the FTC, phone calls were the second-most common communications format for fraudsters in 2023, only behind email. In the first half of 2023, Robokiller, a robocall filtering service, estimated that losses due to robotext scams were on track to surpass the previous year by $3 billion.
Spam communication could become further exacerbated by the advent of new, more powerful artificial intelligence tools. For example, AI makes it easier and cheaper for bad actors to recreate other people’s voices and dupe unsuspecting people over the phone.
To commit fraud, a person only needs about three seconds of your voice to clone it convincingly. The FCC banned the use of AI voices in robocalls in early 2024, allowing the federal government to fine those found using them.
In December 2023, each American received about 17 robocalls for the month, according to Robokiller. And they’re most likely to light up your phone between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m., according to the FCC.
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Most calls happen in the middle of the day
FCC data reveals just how many potentially fraudulent phone calls happen during the typical workday. The deluge of daytime spam calls leaves Americans wary of picking up potentially important phone calls from a number they may not recognize. In 2020, Pew Research found that 81% of Americans don’t answer their phone for an unknown number.
The FCC telemarketing rule that good faith marketers can only make outbound, unsolicited calls between 8 a.m. and 9 p.m. local time partially influences the height of daytime spam calls. What is new in recent years is the sheer volume of spam calls Americans receive.
The constant barrage of unsolicited calls is taking a mental toll on Americans. That’s because someone isn’t targeted just once or twice in their lifetime anymore. Today, an American might be the target of several potential scammers in the same week, and simply ignoring them does not improve the likelihood of receiving another call. Additionally, SMS phishing, or “smishing,” is on the rise, with Robokiller reporting that American phone users received over 87 billion spam texts in 2021, up 58% from the previous year.
That said, there are signs the problem is improving, and the FCC has made it a top priority to combat the general influx. In a 2023 press release, the FCC stated it blocked 99% of auto warranty scam robocalls. It also expects telephone providers like AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon to do what they can to reduce these kinds of calls.
Drew Angerer // Getty Images
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Cracking down on unwanted calls
In July 2023, the FCC announced a nationwide crackdown on unwanted spam calls and telemarketing scams. Operation Stop Scam Calls is a combined effort from the FTC and more than 100 federal and state agencies. The crackdown scrutinizes Voice over Internet Protocol service providers—software-based tools that allow multiple users to share the same phone number and make international calls look like they’re coming from the U.S.
Consumers can visit the FCC’s guide for blocking unwanted phone calls, add their number to the national Do Not Call Registry to help prevent telemarketers from reaching out, and report any unwanted robocalls to the FCC. Many phone service providers also have their own robocall filtering app or service, such as AT&T’s ActiveArmor.
Story editing by Shannon Luders-Manuel. Copy editing by Kristen Wegrzyn. Data work by Elena Cox.