Unwanted Calls? Study Reveals You May Live in One of the Most Afflicted Cities

When the phone rings with an unsaved local number, it’s natural to want to pick up. In reality, you’re not likely to find a person on the other end of the line, or at least not one you want to talk to.

While all spam calls are annoying, they can also be incredibly dangerous. Phone scams can target anyone and often focus on members of more vulnerable populations. These scams not only jeopardize important personal information but are also costly and time-consuming to resolve for victims.

To help identify the biggest targets for scams and unwanted calls, our team at All About Cookies analyzed call data from YouMail, which operates patented apps that answer and block unwanted calls. For each U.S. city, we determined the number of unwanted calls, which includes scam attempts and telemarketing calls. Using this data, we’ve compiled the cities with the biggest unwanted calls problems and where you might be a target of a potential phone scam.

Key findings

• Phone scams account for more than 60% of all unwanted calls received by Americans.
• Atlanta experienced the highest overall volume of unwanted phone calls, with an average of 45 calls per week.
• New York City was among the top 10 cities for most overall scam attempts, yet experienced the lowest frequency per capita. Even so, NYC residents can still expect at least 1 phone scam attempt per week.

How many unwanted calls are Americans receiving?

Between telemarketers and scam attempts, Americans received over 30 billion unwanted calls from January 2021 to September 2022. More than 11 billion of these — 39.6% — were telemarketing calls where the caller attempts to sell a good or service over the phone, typically unsolicited.

However, sometimes these unwanted calls are more dangerous than just a telemarketer pestering someone trying to go about their day. More than 18 billion, or 60.4%, of the unwanted calls Americans received were phone scams.

Often, scammers will present a false scenario in order to receive money. Once paid, the victim usually isn’t able to get that money back. For instance, the caller on the other end of the line can pretend to be a member of an official government agency, such as the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), threatening legal consequences if a given amount isn’t paid. Others may impersonate a charity, offer a “free” trial for a service, or pretend to be a debt relief or credit repair agency.

Cities that get the most unwanted calls

Between telemarketing and scam attempts, Atlanta residents receive the highest number of unwanted calls of any city in the U.S. The average Atlanta resident can expect an incredible 45 unwanted calls per week, more than twice the rate of any other city.

Baltimore has the second most frequent unwanted calls per capita, with the average resident experiencing nearly 18 calls per week.

Of the top ten cities, Raleigh, North Carolina, experienced the least frequent calls. While still inconvenient and annoying, Raleigh residents experienced only around 10 unwanted calls per week.

Ranking	City	Unwanted Calls Per Week (Per Capita)
1	Atlanta, Georgia	45.1
2	Baltimore, Maryland	18.9
3	Tampa, Florida	17.0
4	Dallas, Texas	16.5
5	Miami, Florida	14.3
6	Cleveland, Ohio	12.4
7	New Orleans, Louisiana	11.9
8	Detroit, Michigan	11.3
9	San Francisco, California	11.0
10	Raleigh, North Carolina	10.2

Cities with the most frequent scam calls

As mentioned, not all unwanted calls are dangerous. Looking only at dangerous scam attempts, Atlanta residents unsurprisingly still receive the most of any U.S. city.

An Atlanta resident can expect over 24 scam calls in a single week alone. Scam attempts are much more dangerous than telemarketing calls. Unfortunately, there’s no clear-cut way for an individual to discern whether a call will be a scam or not based on the incoming number alone.

Atlanta also experiences more than double the number of scam attempts than Baltimore, the city with the second most frequent scam attempts. Baltimore residents typically experience 10 scam calls weekly.

Cities with the highest amount of calls

While some cities receive more frequent calls throughout the week, many are just more susceptible to a larger overall number of unwanted calls. Due to the city’s massive population, New York City is among the top 10 cities when it comes to the overall number of phone scam attempts. Yet, on a per capita basis, NYC actually has one of the lowest scam call rates in the country. Even then, however, an NYC resident can still expect at least 1 phone scam attempt per week.

Outside of the popular target of Atlanta, the rest of the top five cities with the most unwanted calls overall were Dallas, Chicago, Houston, and Los Angeles. Wichita, Kansas, received the lowest number of unwanted calls, with over 92 million calls coming through since January 2021.

You can find the full list of cities below:

City	Per Capita Telemarketing Calls Annually	Per Capita Scam Calls Annually	Total Unwanted Calls Since January 2021
Atlanta, Georgia	1,091	1,262	2,041,474,643
Dallas, Texas	392	470	1,941,268,747
Chicago, Illinois	159	182	1,607,839,090
Houston, Texas	174	200	1,495,362,191
Los Angeles, California	95	121	1,450,212,438
New York, New York	45	52	1,438,119,546
Phoenix, Arizona	175	214	1,103,429,778
Baltimore, Maryland	449	536	992,980,865
San Francisco, California	278	357	905,224,479
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania	143	165	849,060,492
Detroit, Michigan	280	311	653,655,126
Tampa, Florida	408	481	600,991,536
Charlotte, North Carolina	173	203	577,817,644
Miami, Florida	346	403	575,183,941
San Diego, California	99	123	534,665,244
Denver, Colorado	194	234	532,395,172
Seattle, Washington	173	217	500,769,757
San Antonio, Texas	86	110	496,427,359
Columbus, Ohio	143	161	480,551,033
Boston, Massachusetts	179	233	471,307,443
Memphis, Tennessee	195	216	450,804,129
Nashville, Tennessee	174	199	442,695,863
Raleigh, North Carolina	245	286	434,822,257
Oklahoma City, Oklahoma	164	182	416,154,391
Las Vegas, Nevada	161	196	403,694,843
Cleveland, Ohio	291	333	401,169,820
Austin, Texas	107	129	398,740,025
Fresno, California	187	220	387,836,324
New Orleans, Louisiana	288	297	385,886,520
Indianapolis, Indiana	110	129	368,164,777
Virginia Beach, Virginia	204	246	359,617,757
Bakersfield, California	221	278	355,865,954
Sacramento, California	169	208	346,043,978
Jacksonville, Florida	94	106	334,130,213
Minneapolis, Minnesota	194	216	305,313,006
Tulsa, Oklahoma	176	203	272,551,769
Long Beach, California	134	164	237,108,852
Portland, Oregon	92	119	236,528,410
Louisville, Kentucky	94	111	225,364,537
Milwaukee, Wisconsin	102	116	217,692,515
Washington, District of Columbia	85	100	216,111,613
Omaha, Nebraska	104	118	189,368,244
Colorado Springs, Colorado	94	126	185,579,734
Kansas City, Missouri	96	104	177,653,413
Lexington, Kentucky	132	159	163,829,997
Albuquerque, New Mexico	70	82	149,542,156
Corpus Christi, Texas	117	134	139,060,811
Honolulu, Hawaii	90	98	113,388,624
El Paso, Texas	36	50	103,078,304
Wichita, Kansas	60	73	92,375,179

Bottom line

While spam calls may not be entirely preventable, there are many different programs such as YouMail available for download to curb the amount of calls coming in. Reporting them to your cell carrier can help companies improve upon software that blocks them from coming through. If you receive calls from a number you don’t recognize, always proceed with caution.

• Protect yourself against identity theft. Spam callers may ask for information that may compromise your identity. Knowing how to protect your identity online or over the phone is key when dodging spam calls.
• Never reveal personally identifiable information. If you unknowingly answer a spam call, avoid revealing any personally identifiable information (PII) to protect your identity.
• Find out if any PII has been stolen. Review bills, bank statements, and credit reports to find out if your identity’s been stolen.
• What to do next. Be sure to alert authorities and file a police report should the damages be significant.

Methodology

All About Cookies studied internal data from YouMail’s Robocall Index. The overall number of calls within certain cities, the types of unwanted calls received, and the frequency of calls per capita were discerned from the data. The evaluated data covered January 2021 through September 2022.