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.

The report looks at phone spam rates in 38 countries around the world where we saw activity in our data and user reports. Each country includes:

• Spam rate (unwanted calls)
• Fraud rate (malicious calls intended to steal money or private information)
• Nuisance rate (calls that are annoying but not illegal)

Data in the report is based on calls observed on Samsung Smart Call enabled devices and the Hiya mobile app during Q3 2022. Here are the highlights from the three regions covered in the report: The Americas, Europe and Asia-Pacific.

The Americas

In the United States, just about one in every three calls (32%) is an unwanted call. The good news, however, is that only a small percentage of those unwanted calls are reported as fraud: just .31%. Canada, on the other hand, has a lower overall spam rate (20%), but a higher percentage of those calls are fraud: 5%.

The highest phone spam rates are in South America. Chile leads the pack with a 44% spam rate. About 4% of those are fraud. Close behind Chile is Argentina, with a 43% spam rate. It, however, has the highest fraud rate in the Americas, at 30%. Coming in third is Brazil, with a 36% spam rate and a 7% fraud rate.

Europe

Europe’s biggest phone spam offenders mirror those of South America. France and Spain both have a 43% spam rate. But citizens of Spain get more than twice the fraud calls as those in France. Spain’s fraud rate is 5%, compared to France’s 2%. 

Coming in third is Italy with a 32% spam rate. After that is the UK, with a 29% spam rate. The most glaring figure for the UK is its fraud rate: 15%. That means, more than half of the unwanted calls in the UK are not just annoying, but they are intent on stealing money or information. That leaves the UK with the highest fraud rate in Europe.   

Asia-Pacific

The area with the highest spam rates in the world is the Asia-Pacific region. Hong Kong has a whopping 47% spam rate. For residents of Hong Kong, nearly every other call is simply an annoyance — and 9% of those unwanted calls are fraud. 

Behind Hong Kong is Indonesia, with a 39% spam rate. That’s high, but interestingly, only 1% of those calls are reported as fraud. Coming in third is Australia, with a 24% spam rate, and the Philippines is fourth with a 17% spam rate. 

Download the report

How to stop spam calls

Consumers worldwide do not have to put up with a constant bombardment of spam calls. Fortunately, there is technology that can help people fight back against spammers and scammers. 

Carriers can add Hiya Protect, a complete call protection solution that enables carriers to protect their subscribers by blocking and labeling spam calls, and helping them identify wanted calls. Hiya Protect recently added a new layer of protection, Personal AI, which personalizes call protection to individual subscribers so they receive the calls that are important to them and are protected from targeted attacks.

With Hiya Connect, enterprises can improve customer engagement and loyalty while protecting their customers from deceitful interactions and their brand reputation from inaccurate spam labeling. Get a free Reputation Analysis report to see if your customers are at risk.

Individuals should check with their phone carrier to see if it offers network-level spam protection. If it doesn’t, individuals can download the Hiya mobile app.