RoboKiller Enterprise, a suite of FCC-compliant phone spam solutions to protect a business’s reputation and put an end to robocalls on their business lines, released the findings from its Mid-Year Telecom Phone Spam Threat Report. The report details the wide-ranging impact of phone spam on businesses, noting that robocalls and robotexts are projected to skyrocket by 19% and 68%, respectively, from 2021.

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Spam calls and texts impact businesses, too.
Robocalls and robotexts are a well-known concern for Americans, broadly speaking, and now they’ve become a significant concern for businesses that rely on phone calls to generate revenue. That’s largely because companies don’t have the luxury of ignoring these risky calls and messages — they could be leads or other can’t-miss communications. Scammers know this, and they’re increasingly targeting enterprises as a result. With spam calls and spam texts on pace to shatter single-year records, businesses are feeling the impact on their bottom line.

One particular concern is brand imposter scams — scams in which scammers pretend to be well-known companies in an effort to defraud customers. According to a survey of RoboKiller users highlighted in the report, more than two-thirds of respondents had received a brand imposter scam call, and more than 80% had received a brand imposter scam text at some point. In turn, 20% (by call) and 14% (by text) of respondents made a purchase, and approximately half of respondents lost trust in the defrauded brand.

RoboKiller Enterprise protects businesses against these threats by providing them with industry-leading robocall and robotext protection and unique data insights to help protect their networks. The RoboKiller Enterprise team took a deep dive into spam calls and robotexts on carrier networks in the first half of 2022. Here are some additional insights for the Mid-Year Telecom Phone Spam Threat Report.

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• Spoofed spam calls remain unchanged: Spoofed spam calls continue to remain a problem for businesses. STIR/SHAKEN was formally implemented in June 2021 by large phone carriers, and it had yet to make an impact one year later. However, most recently, smaller carriers implemented the framework, which means we could start to see better results from STIR/SHAKEN.
• Scammers target specific phone carriers: Verizon, AT&T, and T-Mobile were among the top carrier networks scammers spammed. But, on a percentage basis, smaller carriers like Cricket, Xfinity Mobile, and Visible led the way. This is likely because large networks have a strong defense against scam calls, whereas smaller networks may be more vulnerable. No matter what carrier Americans use, their phone number will likely be a target for bad actors.

• At the corporate level, provide employees with a company-sponsored SIM and/or a phone with a different number for business use only.
• Provide a company-wide phone spam solution such as RoboKiller For Teams.
• Work with voice service/telecom providers to block unwanted calls at the network level. RoboKiller Enterprise’s Blockade solution provides businesses using popular CPaaS systems for their telephony services with comprehensive, full-scale spam call protection built on RoboKiller’s robust and ever-expanding scammer database.