Spam calls can be annoying at best and harmful at worst. Some scammers are able to steal sensitive banking information and thousands of dollars from their victims. Other spam calls are essentially advertisements or pushy salespeople. No matter the case, most people don’t want to take spam calls and they’re a constant source of annoyance. But do some locations receive more spam calls than others? The team at Ooma shows us that there are indeed hotspots for spam calls around the U.S.
Using data from the Federal Communications Commission, the Ooma team calculated the number of spam call complaints per 1,000 people in cities across the U.S. They mapped out the top 50 cities across the country. Here are the top 10 cities with the most complaints:
- Alexandria, Virginia: 22.84
- Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: 18.75
- Orlando, Florida: 18.52
- Miami, Florida: 17.58
- Atlanta, Georgia: 16.39
- Las Vegas, Nevada: 16.12
- Knoxville, Tennessee: 15.18
- Plano, Texas: 14.91
- Washington, District of Columbia: 14.46
- Columbia, South Carolina: 14.44
Alexandria, Virginia, the city with the most spam call complaints, has received so many that their local Sheriff’s Office has put out multiple warnings about scam calls and safety information.
Luckily, there are ways to deal with spam calls. You can block them using built-in tools on your phone. You can also contact the Do Not Call Registry and get your name on the list. It can take up to a month for this action to have an effect on calls, but in the long-run it’s an effective step. The FCC has information on a variety of tools you can download to help block and label incoming spam calls. You can help prevent the spread of spam calls by reporting the numbers to the FCC. Complaints give the service information on where these calls are coming from and who is behind them.
