Bank and credit card scams were the most common types of phone scams in the world in Q3 2024, according to Hiya’s data. These appear in almost every country and involve fraudsters impersonating a bank or credit card company to get their victims to reveal account information and passwords in order to gain access to bank accounts.
Amazon scams were the second most common type of phone scams globally. Yet, even though certain scams are seen in countries around the world, individual countries have their own unique set of fraudulent calls. In the United States, Medicare scams top the list. In the UK, HMRC tax scams are number one. People in France and Spain are bombarded with calls from electricity suppliers, and in Germany, sweepstakes scams have been #1 for years.
Those were some of the findings in Hiya’s Q3 2024 Global Call Threat Report, which reports data from the first half of 2024. The report reveals spam rates in more than 40 countries worldwide and details the most common scam calls in select countries. Read the report to discover:
- Number of spam calls per person per month in 40+ countries.
- Percentage of calls that are suspected to be fraud vs. nuisance.
- Detailed analysis of the US, UK, Canada, Spain, France, Germany and Brazil.
- Spam call comparisons by region.
Download the Q3 2024 Global Call Threat Report
Key findings
In Q3 2024, Hiya flagged 9.7 billion calls as suspected spam. That’s more than 100 million spam calls every day! Globally, more than one of every four unknown calls is unwanted. Of those unknown calls (calls coming from outside a person’s contact list) 21% were identified as nuisance and 8% were identified as fraud.
Worldwide, 29% of unknown calls are spam (21% nuisance and 8% fraud).
Other key findings include:
- Worldwide – Countries that received the most spam calls in the first half of 2024 included:
- Brazil – 28 per person per month
- Chile – 25 per person per month
- Mexico – 20 per person per month
- Spain – 13 per person per month
- US – 13 per person per month
- United States – The US’s 1% fraud rate is one of the lowest in the world. Still, Americans are concerned about AI-generated deepfakes, with more than one in four survey respondents saying they’ve experienced an audio deepfake — primarily on a personal call.
- United Kingdom – UK residents receive only 4 spam calls per person each month, one of the lowest rates in Europe. In Hiya’s survey, 18% had experienced an audio deepfake and 11% had experienced a video deepfake.
- Canada – Canadians average only 5 spam calls per month, less than half the 13 received by residents of the US. Amazon scams continue to be the most common type of phone fraud in Canada.
- Spain – Residents of Spain get 13 unwanted calls per month — more than any other European country. It also has Europe’s highest rate of fraud calls. Calls regarding utilities are most common.
- France – People in France receive 12 spam calls per person each month — just one fewer than Spain — but France’s fraud rate is much lower. Calls from electricity suppliers, real and fake, are plentiful.
- Germany – Of the seven countries with detailed analysis in this report, Germany gets the fewest spam calls: just 2 per month. Sweepstakes scams continue to be the most common phone fraud in Germany.
- Brazil – Brazil receives more spam calls than any of the 40+ countries in this report: 28 per month. That’s about one every single day, and 14% of those are fraud. Bank scams are by far the most popular scams in Brazil.
Download the Global Call Threat Report to see graphs of the most popular scams in each of the above countries.
Methodology
Data in the Global Call Threat Report report is based on a representative sample of cells observed during Q3 2024 on the Hiya Voice Security Network, which includes Samsung Smart Call enabled devices and the Hiya mobile app.
Spam is defined as unwanted calls, and includes both fraud calls and nuisance calls. The spam flag rate in this report represents calls that Hiya has identified and flagged as either “potential fraud” or “suspected spam.” Spam ratios represent the number of unwanted calls from non-contacts, which are calls placed from numbers that are not in an individual’s local address book.
Get the full report
Use the Global Call Threat Report to compare spam rates in more than 40 countries and learn more about the top phone scams in specific countries. Download your copy.