The number of annoying robocalls dipped slightly in May

But scam calls showed a sharp increase

By Mark Huffman of ConsumerAffairs

June 9, 2025

• U.S. consumers received more than 4.8 billion robocalls in May, a slight decline from April but still 7.3% higher than May 2024

• Scam robocalls surged more than 10%, with nearly 700 million placed in May alone

• The most annoying campaign targeted businesses with misleading messages about Google listings

U.S. cellphone companies may be doing a better job of screening spam calls. At least, thats a possible conclusion from the modest drop in robocalls in May.

YouMails Robocall Index shows there were just over 4.8 billion robocalls last month, down 2.5% from Aprils deluge, but still 7.3% higher than the same time last year.

That slight drop in volume offers little comfort, though. The first five months of 2025 have already tallied 23.8 billion robocalls, an 11% increase compared to the same period in 2024. In daily terms, that translates to around 165 million robocalls and nearly 1,803 per second throughout May.

“It’s nice to get a breather from 2025’s trend of higher robocall volume,” said Alex Quilici, CEO of YouMail. However, it’s disappointing that the volume continues at a high level, and consumers still need to protect themselves from these annoying and sometimes dangerous calls.”

Scam calls buck the trend

While most robocall categories declined in May, scam calls went in the opposite direction. YouMail reports that scam robocalls climbed by more than 10%, with over 690 million scam calls placed, elevating their share of the robocall landscape to 14%.

Scam and telemarketing calls combined for roughly 2.7 billion calls in May, mirroring Aprils figures and maintaining their stranglehold on 55% of all robocalls. Notification and payment reminder calls often considered less intrusive both declined, with notifications falling 6.2% and payment reminders down 4.1%.

The standout nuisance of the month was a widespread campaign impersonating Google-related services, urging businesses to “verify” their listings or risk invisibility in search results. The robocall, falsely implying payment was necessary for visibility, employed vague language, no company identification at the start, and exploited fear around online visibility.

Our records show your listing is not verified or missing important information… Press 1 now to verify your listing, the robocall urged, before offering a misleading opt-out number and the name EMG listings.

YouMail estimates this campaign alone accounted for tens of millions of calls, using tens of thousands of different numbers. Making matters worse, many recipients werent business owners at all, and the system appeared to use a fresh spoofed number for each attempt, making it incredibly difficult to block.

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