Phone Spam Soars to a New Record

December 19, 2017

More people than ever have signed up for the “Do Not Call Registry,” which is supposed to stop telemarketers from bothering you. But spam phone calls continue to burgeon, thanks to illegal robocalls.

During 2017, Americans fielded 76 percent more robocalls than they did in 2016 -- for a total of 18 billion, according to a new analysis by Hiya, a robocall blocking service. That’s despite the fact that the Federal Trade Commission’s Do Not Call Registry has grown by nearly 4 million phone numbers over the course of the past year.