In the first quarter of 2025, the most commonly reported fraud call by Hiya users in Spain related to employment and job scams. Spaniards reported calls with fake job offers, unsolicited employment opportunities, and calls impersonating human resources personnel and recruiters from various job matching websites, such as Indeed. Here’s a typical comment from a Hiya user in Spain:
“They say they have read my resume and they have a job offer for me, and to add them to WhatsApp and write to them.”
Employment scams are increasing in Europe. We first noticed a surge in these types of scams in late 2024 in Spain. By Q1 2025, employment and jobs scams were the #1 scam call in Spain, #3 in the UK, and #4 scam in France.
Findings come from Hiya’s Q1 2025 Global Call Threat Report, which measures phone spam in 40+ countries and details the top scams in 7 key countries.
Download the Q1 2025 Global Call Threat Report
The second most common unwanted call in the first quarter of 2025 had to do with energy and electricity. In Spain, residents can choose their utilities provider, so it’s not uncommon to receive sales calls from utility companies competing for business. Some users reported these as telemarketing calls, but there were also many reports of utility scams.
WhatsApp scams came in #4. Many of these were related to employment scams (which were #1), where the caller wants to connect on the private messaging app WhatsApp. There are other scams that aim to move the conversation off the phone and onto WhatsApp. Last year, more than 100 people were arrested in Spain for impersonating relatives who had lost their mobile phones and therefore wanted to communicate on WhatApp instead.
The rest of the top scams are ones that never seem to lose their luster in Spain. They include Amazon scams, bank scams, insurance scams and cryptocurrency scams.
Second highest rate of unwanted calls in Europe
Residents of Spain receive an average of 15 unwanted calls per person each month — up from 12 one year ago. That’s the second highest rate in Europe, just under France’s 18. Not only do Spaniards endure a high volume of unwanted calls, but a large percentage of them are fraud: 22%. That’s 4 times the fraud rate in France.
Spam ratios represent the number of unwanted calls from “non-contacts,” which are calls placed from numbers that are not in an individual’s address book.
Get the full report
The Global Call Threat Report is a valuable resource for phone carriers, businesses and individuals. Use the report to compare phone spam in your own country with other countries in your region and other countries around the world. Read the report to discover:
- Top phone scams in US, UK, Canada, Spain, France, Germany and Brazil.
- Spam calls per person per month, and percentage fraud vs. nuisance, in 40+ countries.
- Spam call comparisons by region.
- Special section on AI-generated spam calls.
Download the Q1 2025 Global Call Threat Report
