The Hiya Voice: The caller ID and call protection blog

Spain combines high rates of fraud and nuisance calls

Spain has a phone spam problem. Not only do Spaniards receive a high volume of unwanted calls each month, but of those calls, a high ...

Spam calls declined in the UK in the first half of 2024

Residents of the UK receive fewer spam calls than those living in other European countries: an average of only 3 per person each month. ...

Scam of the month: Tech support scams

“Tech support scams are real and they’re causing enormous consumer injury: hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars, and that’s just ...

Global Report: Each country experiences unique set of phone ...

Phone spam is a global problem, but each country experiences it differently — both in the volume of spam calls and the types of phone scams ...

Scam of the month: Bank scams

Bank and credit card scams were the most commonly reported type of phone scam in the world last year, according to Hiya’s data. They ranked ...

Emerging text-based threats: Micro scams and the dawn of ...

This is a guest blog post from our partner KONTXT, part of RealNetworks, which provides spam protection for text/SMS/MMS messages.

Unmasking the truth behind scam phone calls

Scam calls are a worldwide problem. Each year, Hiya analyzes billions of calls across 40+ countries, and of those calls, more than 14% were ...

Scam of the month: Utility and disconnect scams

If you received a call from your utility company informing you that your electricity would be shut off within the hour due to lack of ...

State of the Call 2024 webinar: watch on demand

“A question I get asked a lot is ‘Is the phone call dead?’ I can guarantee you the answer is no. But, I can say that the voice channel has ...

Amazon phone scams down in the US, up in Canada and UK

What happens when scammers hit a roadblock with their fraudulent calls? Do they lay down their headsets and go home? Not likely. It’s more ...

Phone scam losses increased 527% in past year

Financial losses from phone scams were up 527% in 2023 compared to 2022. In 2022, the average amount lost by consumers who were scammed was ...

Scam of the month: Charity and Nonprofit scams

People are generally willing to open their wallets to help others in need, whether it’s to help victims of a natural disaster or fund ...

Senior scams on the rise in Canada

Senior citizens in Canada are being targeted by phone scammers.

UK energy bill scams surge in winter

Winter may be the slow season in many industries in the UK, but it’s high season for fraudsters perpetrating energy scams.

Scam of the month: Elections

2024 is a presidential election year in the US, and that means citizens will be getting plenty of political calls.

Spain experiences high rates of phone spam and fraud

In the previous four quarters, Spain has had the highest spam rate in Europe. But in Q4 2023, Spain’s 46% spam rate was edged out by ...

2024 State of the Call: Consumers prefer voice, but spam ...

While consumers and businesses continue to prioritize voice calls, phone fraud, and spam are on the rise, posing a threat to the medium ...

Brazilians receive 24 spam calls per person per month

Brazil has a major phone spam problem. Brazillians receive an average of 24 spam calls per person each month. That’s considerably more than ...

Canada Revenue Agency scams tax Canadian’s patience

As if calculating and paying taxes weren’t bad enough, Canadians must also deal with phone scammers who try to con them out of their ...

Immigration scams on the rise in the UK

Immigration and visa scams are on the rise in the UK.

Facing the challenge of AI scam calls

Imagine you get a call seeming to be from the president of the United States urgently telling you not to vote in the upcoming election. ...

Biden voice-clone robocall highlights AI-generated phone ...

The Joe Biden voice-clone robocall encouraging voters not to vote in the Democratic primary in New Hampshire was an eerie reminder that ...

Package delivery scams are common worldwide

If you receive a call telling you there’s a problem with a package delivery, think twice before you answer any questions or press a button ...

Q4 Global Call Threat Report: phone scams peak during ...

Late November not only kicked off the holiday season, but scammers kicked into high gear to take advantage of consumers preoccupied with ...

Beyond the scam: Understanding the true cost of fraud calls

Almost all of us have received a fraud call, and some may have even fallen victim to a phone scam. However, the actual cost of fraud goes ...

Understanding and avoiding the Eversource scam

In an era dominated by technology, phone scams have become an escalating concern for individuals and businesses alike. The ubiquity of ...

Scam of the month: loan phone scams

Hiya’s data show that loan scams were the sixth most commonly reported phone scam in the world last year. (See Top 10 phone scams of 2023.) ...

The future of voice: challenges and opportunities

What are the challenges threatening the future of voice, and where are there untapped opportunities? How can carriers cement the voice call ...

Protect yourself from holiday scams

The holiday season provides a perfect opportunity to slow down, reflect, and give. Just be sure you’re giving to those you care about the ...

Top 10 phone scams of 2023

Bank and credit card scams topped the list of fraudulent phone calls worldwide in 2023, with Amazon impersonators coming in second.

“Hallo mama” scam hitting Germany

In Germany, residents are being hit with the “Hallo mama” scam.

Billions lost to pension scams in the UK

After working hard their whole lives, pensioners in the UK can finally relax and enjoy their retirement. Then the phone rings, with ...

Scam of the month: Open enrollment

Open enrollment for health insurance happens around this time every year in the US, generally from late October through early December. And ...

Need relief? Phone scammers are betting you do

Relief scams were among the top phone scams in the US, according to Hiya’s Q3 Global Call Threat Report, which reveals spam rates in 39 ...

Voice fraud and the threat of generative AI

To illustrate the power of generative AI — and how it can be misused by scammers — Hiya’s Chief Product Officer James Lau cloned the voice ...

Q3 report: In some countries, more of than half of unknown ...

Which four countries have spam call rates exceeding 50%? What’s the most common phone scam in the UK? Which US state gets the most spam ...

Scam of the month: The “yes” scam

There are new phone scams. There are old phone scams. There are even old phone scams that become new again. That seems to be the case with ...

Consumer Council scam calls

Smartphones keep us conveniently connected to the world, but fraudulent calls cause problems for many consumers. Criminals employ ...

Scam of the month: Payment app scams (Venmo, PayPal, Zelle, ...

Peer-to-peer payment apps like Venmo, PayPal, Cash App and Zelle have made paying friends and family quick and easy. The problem is, those ...

Top 10 states for phone spam

Which U.S. state gets the most phone spam?

UK has highest fraud call rate in Europe

The United Kingdom continues to have Europe's highest fraud call rate, at 9.3%. Brits are bombarded by fraudsters impersonating loved ones, ...

The role of the carrier in advancing voice technology

At a panel discussion hosted by Hiya at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, a group of telecom experts was asked the question, “What is the ...

Canada experiencing increase in spam calls

Canada is experiencing an increase in spam calls, and the most prevalent phone scams in the country are impersonation scams and Amazon ...

Hiya honeypots and user reports capture a wealth of insight ...

Ever wonder how Hiya knows what phone scams are currently out there — or when new ones suddenly arise? Hiya Protect is powered by Adaptive ...

“Loved ones scam” is a global problem

Phone scammers like to catch their victims off guard. They jolt their victims with upsetting information and push them to act before they ...

Scam of the Month: Google Business Profile scam

We write a lot about phone scams that target consumers, but the Google Business Profile scam primarily affects business owners.

The rise of AI: voice impersonation scams

Phone scams have long plagued the voice channel, but now with the help of AI they are evolving. AI-powered voice scams are on the rise, ...

Phone fraud increases in 30 out of 39 countries

First the good news. Globally, the overall volume of spam calls declined slightly from Q1 to Q2 2023. The bad news is that the proportion ...

Scam of the Month: Vehicle accident

Just when consumers were breathing a collective sigh of relief as the vehicle warranty scam fades, there comes a different vehicle-related ...

How do vishing attacks impact your business?

Vishing (or “voice phishing”) is a scam technique where a scammer uses a business’s name and information to try and get someone to divulge ...

What is vishing?

Most people have received a call that sounds alarming and urges them to take immediate action to protect their bank account or prevent a ...

What is neighborhood spoofing?

If you get an incoming call from a foreign country or even a state where you have no friends or relatives, that’s a tipoff that it could be ...

Scam of the Month: Immigration

Phone scammers love to target vulnerable populations. And one of their favorite targets is immigrants. Immigrants are typically less ...

Canada’s #1 phone scam: air duct cleaning services

Some phone scams relate to recent news events or target specific demographics. Then there are the scams that have been around for years ...

Elaborate mobile phone contract scam targets UK residents

Some phone scams are simple, such as selling a product or service that’s never delivered. Others can be quite elaborate. That seems to be ...

Sweepstakes phone scams widespread in Germany

“You’re the lucky winner!” That’s the sentence we all long to hear. Unfortunately it’s also the hook used by scammers to get their victim’s ...

Billions lost to cryptocurrency phone scams worldwide

The popularity of investing in cryptocurrency has exploded over the past few years. Investors range from financial professionals to ...

One-fourth of the world’s unknown calls are spam and fraud

No country is immune from phone spam. In Q1 Hiya observed 6.7 billion spam calls worldwide — that’s more than 73 million calls every day.

Scam of the Month: The IRS scam

It used to be that only two things in life were certain: death and taxes. But just as certain as death and taxes are scammers who play on ...

Europol phone scam in Germany

This past summer Germany was hit by a massive phone scam campaign where callers posed as representatives of Europol (the European Union’s ...

Scam of the Month: The mortgage scam

“Hi, this is Denise reaching out from [your mortgage agency] in regard to your recent mortgage payment of $250,000. Please give us a call ...

Chinese-language robocall scam in Canada

Hiya’s data shows that Chinese-language phone scams remain one of the top three phone scams in Canada (along with Amazon and credit card ...

CPF Scams Target French Citizens

It seems that each country has a phone scam that is unique to it. For France, it’s the CPF scam.

"A criminal case is registered against your name for tax ...

"This call is to notify you that a criminal case is registered against your name for tax evasion and tax fraud by HMRC. We are ...

Protecting vulnerable populations from phone scams

Anyone can be fooled by a phone scam. All it takes is to get caught off guard or to hear something that sounds plausible and act on it ...

Scam of the Month: Why am I getting so many calls about my ...

Insurance phone scams are a growing problem today. These scams typically involve bad actors posing as insurance agents or representatives ...

"We can reduce your energy bill by 87%" Energy crisis in ...

The rising cost of living in the UK is causing anxiety and even street protests and is leaving Brits searching for ways to save money on ...

Meet Hiya at MWC Barcelona

Global Call Threat Report: the world is drowning in spam ...

The world is drowning in spam calls. That seems to be the overarching contention of the recently-published Global Call Threat Report from ...

What is number rotation and why is it so insidious?

Consumers are being bombarded with spam. In response, carriers have implemented technology to block or label suspected spam and fraud calls ...

Amazon Scam Calls to Watch For | Hiya

Amazon is in an enviable position of being a top retailer and having global brand recognition. The flip side of that, however, is that its ...

“We have a fantastic offer for you” Spain bombarded with ...

Spain has the worst phone spam problem in Europe. Of the 20 European countries in which Hiya gathers spam data, Spain came in #1 with a ...

Gabb Wireless & Hiya: working together to stop spam ...

Gabb Wireless is dedicated to its mission of creating a safe space for kids in the technological world; through its custom Android ...

Scam of the Month: Medicare scam calls

The Medicare scam is an all too popular ruse that plagues the voice channel; this harmful deceit was crafted specifically to hurt the ...

BT Group and EE Select Hiya for Spam and Fraud Call ...

We’re thrilled to announce a new agreement with BT Group and EE, to provide the industry’s leading call protection service, Hiya Protect, ...

Scam of the Month 2022: A Year in Review

Phone scams come in all different shapes and sizes. Each variation is another attempt to infiltrate your defenses and procure your ...

What Country Gets the Most Phone Spam?

What country gets the most phone spam? You’ll find the answer to that question in the recently-published Global Spam Report from Hiya.

Help! My Numbers are Being Flagged as Spam, but My Calls ...

Scam, spam, and fraud calls are nothing new. They’ve been around for decades and each year, the problem grows. While consumers expect an ...

Scam of the Month: The Credit National Assist scam

According to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) a debt relief scam is a ruse that targets a consumer with significant credit card debt by ...

Hiya Launches Personal Call Filtering: The Industry’s ...

A phone call is the preferred method of communication for both consumers and businesses, according to Hiya’s State of the Call report. Yet, ...

Hey Grandma, I'm in Trouble: Grandparent Scam on the Rise ...

Millions of dollars are being stolen from Canadians in what’s been called the grandparent scam. Here’s how it works: The scammer calls, ...

Scam of the Month: Why Am I Getting Calls About My Social ...

The voice call still reigns supreme for sales. That is one of the key takeaways from Hiya’s midyear check-in, the State of the Call for ...

Fraud Affects Age Groups Differently

What age group is the most likely to fall victim to fraud? If you guessed seniors, you’d be wrong. According to the Federal Trade ...

The Phone: A Gateway for Fraud

According to the Federal Trade Commission, of the 1.8 million fraud reports received last year that included a contact method, the phone ...

Watch Out For Hurricane-related Scam Calls

In the wake of Hurricane Ian in Florida, and Hurricane Fiona which stretched from Puerto Rico to Eastern Canada, relief organizations have ...

Scam of the Month: The healthcare scam

The patient enters the examination room concerned with what they think may be an infection.

Auto Warranty Scam: No Longer #1

The auto warranty scam has been the #1 phone scam in the United States for more than two years, based on the number of reports from ...

Senior Scam: Spoofing the Greatest Generation

According to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), older adults (those 60 and older) are the least likely of any age group to report losing ...

Phone Scams: A Global Frustration

Phone spam and fraud calls are a global problem, as can clearly be seen in Hiya’s State of the Call reports for the United States, Canada ...

Scam of the Month: Utilities

It takes a lot to run a happy home. Proper light, heat, and power are necessary for the upkeep of any shelter; utilities are a reflection ...

Spam vs Fraud: 15 Varieties of Unwanted Calls

At Hiya, we define a spam call as a nuisance call. There are two main classifications of unwanted calls: nuisance calls and fraud calls. ...

Canadians Plagued by Government Impersonation Phone Scams

While the most popular phone scam in the U.S. last year was the auto warranty scam, in Canada, government impersonation scams top the list. ...

FCC and Hiya Protect: Taking Action with the TCPA

Back in 1991, the Telephone Consumer Protection Act (TCPA) became law – and it is a law that is still widely used today to protect ...

MasMovil and Pepephone: Hiya's foray into the Spanish market

Hiya has partnered with Pepephone to become the first mobile phone carrier in Spain to offer Hiya’s Adaptive AI-powered call protection to ...

Scam of the Month: Student Loan Debt

You’ve got your diploma, you’ve tossed your cap, and now it is time to greet the open world, but a successful higher education comes with a ...

Why does my number show up as a spam risk?

As an individual consumer, you probably appreciate it when your caller ID identifies incoming calls with a “Spam Risk” label or similar ...

FCC (and Hiya) Cracking Down on Auto Warranty Scams

Earlier this year, we looked into the popular auto warranty scam and its impact on businesses and consumers. Based on our data, we ...

Protect Your Network from Common Phone Scams

There’s no doubt about it. Spam and fraud calls are an increasingly annoying nuisance for consumers, with people receiving an average of 14 ...

Scam of the Month: IRS scam

As spring comes to a close and the long days of summer begin to roll in, we can safely say that we have officially put tax season behind ...

Global Protection: Hiya Welcomes New FCC Regulations

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) has adopted new rules intended to stop illegal robocalls that originate overseas from entering ...

Top 5 Scam Calls of 2022 So Far

Every week Hiya receives more than 1.6 million reports of spam and scam calls. These come from users of Hiya’s mobile app, and customers of ...

Guide to SOC 2 Compliance for Call Centers

Call centers, whether they are internal agencies or external organizations, often access and use privileged information in client programs. ...

Scam of the Month: The Credit Card Scam

In May we took a look at one of the most popular phone scams plaguing the voice channel: the credit card scam. Whether it is a tap, a chip, ...

STIR/SHAKEN and Illegal Call Spoofing

Millions of Americans own different types of mobile phones and all of these people know that fraudulent calls are already a huge problem in ...

Robocalls: The Good, the Bad, the Ugly

If there’s one thing everyone hates, it’s robocalls. That’s a technology that should have never been invented. But what about the robocall ...

Is STIR/SHAKEN Preventing Scam Calls?

We are quickly approaching the final implementation deadline of STIR/SHAKEN legislation, which was enacted to reduce spam and scam calls. ...

The Latest Tool to Stop Spam and Scam Calls: Adaptive AI

How do you stop spam and scam calls? Traditionally, spam-blocking services had used the historical model. If a phone number has a history ...

Tips to Improve Your Reputation and Get Your Business Calls ...

As a business, you face a dilemma. To succeed, you need to talk to your customers. Yet, because of the bombardment of spam calls, customers ...

Customer Satisfaction: Net Promoter Score

Customer Experience professionals are tasked with creating a world-class experience for their customers. They are keenly focused on ...

Protect Your Identity and Improve Answer Rates

We live in a world where data is transferred freely; a user’s information has become currency, and legitimacy has become paramount in ...

How Big Box Retailers Can Stay Connected this Spring

The sun is shining and everyone is anxious to get out and greet the open world. With the spring season well underway it is safe to say that ...

Security Trends for May 2022

Fraudsters, criminals, and illegal telemarketers are always thinking of new ways to cheat people out of their money or personal ...

The State of Voice in Healthcare in 2022

Recently, Hiya released our annual State of the Call report. The results were definitive; not only is voice growing in terms of popularity, ...

Scam of the Month: extended warranty scam

The phone rings, and it is an unknown number. You pick up the phone just in case it is something important. When you answer, you are ...

How Movers and Home Improvement Specialists Benefit from an ...

When spring rolls around it seems like everybody and their mothers are moving or working on some sort of home improvement project. As the ...

Scam of the Month: The Eavesdropping Scam

You’ve likely read about the Wangiri scam, and I’m sure someone has contacted you about your “car’s extended warranty”. But there’s a new ...

How to Stay Prepared as 401K Plan Provider this Tax Season

When tax time rolls around, customers tend to have a lot of inquiries about interest and mortgage statements. How do they affect my taxes? ...

What Banking Institutions Need to Know for Tax Season

When tax time rolls around, customers tend to have a lot of inquiries about interest and mortgage statements. How do they affect my taxes? ...

What you need to know about STIR/SHAKEN in 2022

STIR/SHAKEN’s ultimate goal is to reduce robocalls in the telecom networks. To achieve this, STIR/SHAKEN attempts to help differentiate the ...

Q&A: Why does it help to 'Report a Number' if scammers ...

Great question!

Top 5 Trends in Voice in 2022

This morning, Hiya released our annual State of the Call report. We surveyed 1,800 professionals and 12,239 consumers across 6 different ...

Hiya’s 2022 State of the Call Webinar: The Highlights

Last Thursday (2/17), Alex Algard, founder and CEO of Hiya, Inc., presented the first look at our findings for our 2022 State of the ...

Get Prepped for Tax Time: How Tax Professionals Can Build ...

Each year, spring brings with it a quintessentially American activity– and we’re not talking about baseball.

Scam of the Month: The Wangiri Scam

Ring! Click. The caller hung up. But why? Welcome to the Wangiri scam — one of the world's most popular scam calls. In Japanese, Wangiri ...

VPP vs. CNAM: What’s the Difference?

Is your branded call service running technology from the ‘70s?

Q4 Holiday Scam Calls

The holidays! Filled with sugar, spice, and everything nice! Or, is that the Powerpuff Girls? Regardless, it’s a time many look forward to. ...

The Fight Against Robocalls Reaches New Milestone

Bad calls are a nuisance for many smartphone users these days. In particular, Americans receive billions of robocalls daily—and that number ...

The Telegraph spam: Nuisance calls are on the rise in the UK

A new wave of nuisance calls has hit the UK, as Britons have received more than 1.5 billion nuisance calls in 2021. The Telegraph recently ...

What Is TCPA Compliance?

Let’s face it—we all hate spam calls. But imagine it’s 1990; around 12:30 am, in the dead of night, you hear it—the dreaded ringing of the ...

What Is SOC 2 Compliance?

With great data, comes great responsibility. When SOC 2 Compliance was introduced, it was in direct response to the growing need for ...

The Pain of Fraud Calls: 4 Insights for Healthcare Call ...

The voice channel has always played a critical role in healthcare communications among payers, providers, and patients. More often than ...

4 Key Trends Every Financial Services Contact Center Should ...

In 2020, people became more accustomed to putting more physical distance between them for the sake of social distancing -- but this ...

Tax Scams Reach Highest Point since Pandemic Began

With the opening of tax season last month, we’ve seen a massive increase in tax-related phone scams. Tax scam calls reached their highest ...

Understanding STIR/SHAKEN and call spoofing

Millions of Americans own different types of mobile phones and all of these people know that fraudulent calls are already a huge problem in ...

Hiya’s 2021 State of the Call report featured in USA Today, ...

We recently launched our 2021 State of the Call report, where we analyzed more than 150 billion calls and commissioned a third-party survey ...

Caller ID spoofing: How to prevent fraudulent calls

When most businesses think about ramping up security, they imagine implementing a robust cybersecurity strategy to prevent data breaches. ...

What is a spoofing attack? Everything to know about this ...

A spoofing attack occurs when a deceitful party disguises its identity and pretends to be a reliable company. Posing as a trusted brand, ...

Our 2021 State of the Call Report is Live!

Each year at Hiya, we dig into our data to spot the top trends on the voice call. And we make these insights available to you in our annual ...

How to stop phone spoofing of your business numbers

In 2020, voice fraud generated almost $20 billion in losses in the US alone and this trend shows no signs of slowing down. Scammers and ...

Phone Spoofing Bill Passed in House and Moves to Senate

It’s not a surprise that we’re constantly flooded with a number of scams, spams, and robocalls. What makes those calls even worse is when ...

Neighbor Scam Surges 15x in 2017, Imitates First Six Digits ...

In a recent attempt to trick consumers, reports of the Neighbor Spoofing Scam are increasing dramatically. Phone fraudsters are mimicking ...

One Ring Scam Calls Make Their Way To Germany

As if we’d thought scammers had duped enough victims in the U.S., unfortunately they haven’t had enough as they’ve made their way to ...

How to Block Robocalls Once and For All

We’ve all been flooded with robo, scam and spam calls, but have you ever thought about how many calls are actually made per month? NBC’s ...

Scammers Now Pose As Social Security Administration During ...

If you thought you dodged the IRS scam this season, think again! Scammers are no longer disguising themselves as IRS agents but now have a ...

How to prevent your number from being ‘spoofed’ by scammers

Scam callers have been hitting Tennessee citizens hard with spoofing, and have pushed Tennessee’s Governor, Bill Haslam, to sign a new law ...

What companies need to know about neighbor spoofing

You’ve likely already been the target of a neighbor spoofing call — you just might not know it. This clever little trick has been on the ...

Police Scam: Is There Really A Warrant Out For My Arrest?!

From the likes of Washington to Kansas and even all the way to Florida, no state in the U.S. has been an exception to the “Police Officer” ...

The duct cleaning scam: what is it & how to avoid it

It may be in the morning, afternoon or even during dinner, but Canadians can’t get through a day without hearing from an Air Duct Cleaning ...

Human Evolution and the Transformation of Phones

The smartphones we possess today have come a long way from the first rendition of the telephone back in 1876 when Alexander Graham Bell ...

Amazon Makes Phone Calls? Think again…

With over 300 million customer accounts for the picking, it’s not a surprise that scammers have been targeting Amazon sellers and customers.

How to avoid IRS scam calls

Let’s face it, money matters. Whether you’re earning it or spending it, financial security is crucial. Unfortunately, the never-ending IRS ...

The top 12 utility scams to avoid this year

Fraudsters have taken advantage of rising electricity bills to prey on consumers by stealing personal and financial information. According ...

Three Scams to Avoid Being Had On Craigslist

In this day and age, it’s a rarity to find someone paying full price or settling for the first offer they find. Gone are the days where we ...

Hiya Launches Hiya Connect To Help Businesses Improve ...

Today, Hiya announced a new product that allows businesses to provide meaningful context into their calls to mobile customers. Featuring ...

FCC Proposes New Rules That May Be Solution to Stopping ...

We've heard about the fight against robocalls since last July when the Robocall Strike Force was first established. Thankfully, the force's ...

Galaxy Note 7 Has Hiya Baked Right In!

Samsung's partnership with Hiya has always guaranteed protection for all Samsung Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge users. And now as they introduce ...

Load 10 More

The Hiya Voice

Global Report: Each country experiences unique set of phone scams

2024 State of the Call: Consumers prefer voice, but spam and fraud are ...

Hiya unveils first branded calling solution with performance analytics ...

Reduce the risk of spam labeling on your business calls

All articles