COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) – A study found that both Ohio and Columbus rank among the top locations in the country where residents receive the most robocalls.
A robocall is an automated phone call that delivers a recorded message, which can be on behalf of a political campaign, telemarketing company or scammer.
Robocall scams typically involve a phone call claiming to be from a government agency, saying that the recipient needs to pay for something or give out personal information. Last year, robocall scams and fraud led to $851 million in financial losses, according to the Federal Trade Commission.
To find the states and cities that suffer from robocalls the most, NumberBarn, a phone number management company, analyzed the number of robocall complaints per 100,000 residents across all 50 states and the 50 most populated U.S. cities. The company used the most recent 2024 data from the FTC, which includes both legitimate and scam robocalls.
Ohio ranked as the state that experienced the second-highest amount of robocalls in the country, at 921 per 100,000 residents.
Delaware took the No. 1 spot at 960 robocalls per capita, and completing the top five was Arizona at No. 3 (865), Illinois at No. 4 (858) and North Carolina at No. 5 (826). The states that experienced the least amount of robocalls were Alaska (264), North Dakota (314), Hawaii (298), Iowa (416) and Wyoming (455).
When it comes to the cities that experienced the most robocalls, Columbus ranked at No. 6, with 623 robocalls per capita. The top five cities included Tucson, Arizona (751); St. Petersburg, Florida (700); Fort Worth, Texas (659); Jacksonville, Florida (641); and Las Vegas, Nevada (636).
Of the 50 largest cities in the country, Honolulu experienced the lowest number of robocalls per 100,000 residents at 189, followed by Bakersfield, California (211); Newark, New Jersey (231); Yonkers, New York (235); and Milwaukee (248).
