Email spam might be the first thing that comes to mind when we hear “spam,” but it is more than that.
This steadily growing, shady industry spans spam calls, texts, links, and other delivery models. Since they are also associated with scams, diving into the facts, trends, and numbers around them is essential.
Thus, we committed over 100 research and editing hours to compiling a comprehensive list of the most recent and verified spam statistics.
Top 8 Spam Statistics (Editor’s Pick)
- Americans got about 19.5 spam texts per month in 2022.
- The US, Russia, and China sent the most spam emails globally in 2021.
- 7% of Americans have never received a spam call from their area code.
- In June 2022, 45% of spam calls were spoofed.
- In 2022, 17% of SMS users got spam texts daily.
- 54% of email users deleted spam once they found it in their inbox.
- Facebook removed 734 million spam content in Q2 2022.
- 1 in 10 active Twitter accounts posted spam content in 2022.
Infographic
<p><strong>Please include attribution to vpnAlert.com with this graphic.</strong><br><br><a href="https://vpnalert.com/resources/spam-statistics/" data-wpel-link="internal"><img src="https://vpnalert.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/top-spam-statistics.png" alt="Top 8 Spam Statistics" width="768" border="0" height="743.22580645161" loading="lazy" fetchpriority="low" srcset="https://vpnalert.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/top-spam-statistics-768x743.png 768w, https://vpnalert.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/top-spam-statistics-300x290.png 300w, https://vpnalert.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/top-spam-statistics-1024x991.png 1024w, https://vpnalert.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/top-spam-statistics.png 1240w" sizes="auto"></a></p>
General Spam Statistics
1. 16% of a 2022 survey’s respondents bought something from a spam caller in the past.
However, the majority (84%) never purchased a product or service via spam calls.
2. There were more scam texts than calls in the USA in 2021.
The year saw over 72 billion scam calls, compared to 87.8 billion scam texts in the same period.
3. Google blocked over 231 billion spam and phishing emails in November 2022.
This was just two weeks in November 2022, not the whole month.
The search engine giant also claimed to block over 15 billion spam emails daily on Gmail.
4. China was the most spammed region globally as of February 06, 2023.
The country had over 17,900 live spam issues as of that date alone.
It was followed by the United States, with less than half the number of spam issues (8,960), while Germany came in third with only 840 live spam issues.
Spam Statistics by Demography
5. Americans recorded more than 30 spam calls per user per month in 2022.
At 31 monthly spam calls per user, this was slightly higher than the 2021 average (30.7) and lower than the 2019 average (31.7).
6. Americans got about 19.5 spam texts per month in 2022.
This was the highest average since 2015, increasing yearly since then.
| Year | Avg. Spam Texts Per User |
|---|---|
| 2015 | 6.3 |
| 2017 | 8.4 |
| 2018 | 8.5 |
| 2019 | 10.6 |
| 2020 | 14.7 |
| 2021 | 16.9 |
| 2022 | 19.5 |
7. 58% of Americans got more spam calls and texts in 2022 than in 2021.
However, 14% said they received fewer spam calls and messages in 2022 than in the previous year.
8. 56% of adults aged 35 years and above reported an increase in neighbor-spoofed spam calls.
The 2022 number stood at 39% among younger adults aged 18-34.
9. Higher-income households were increasingly targeted by neighbor-spoofed calls in 2022.
56% of households earning $75,000 and above claimed to notice an increase in spam calls mimicking their area code. In contrast, only 46% of households earning $50,000 – $75,000 reported the same growth.
10. College graduates were likelier to be targeted by neighbor-spoofing spam calls in 2022.
56% of college graduates observed an increase in neighbor-spoofing spam calls between 2021 to 2022. Conversely, 43% of Americans with higher secondary education or less reported the same increase.
11. American seniors were more targeted by spam calls than any other age group.
On average, seniors aged 65+ got 50.4 monthly spam calls in 2022.
The table below shows the progression by age.
| Age Group | Spam Call Frequency (monthly) |
|---|---|
| 18-34 | 20.3 |
| 35-44 | 22.3 |
| 45-54 | 29.8 |
| 55-64 | 33.8 |
| 65+ | 50.4 |
12. Older men were more targeted by spam calls than women in 2022.
Of over 3,000 surveyed adults, men aged 65+ averaged 55.4 spam calls per month. Women in the same age range got 46.3 spam calls per month. Likewise, men aged 55-64 were targeted by 35.8 monthly spam calls, compared to 32 spam calls per month for women in the same age range.
13. Younger women were most likely to get spam calls than men in 2022.
An average of 23.7 monthly spam calls were made to women aged 18-34 in 2022.
In contrast, men in the same age range only got about 17.1 monthly spam calls.
By extension, 35–44-year-old women would get 25.5 spam calls monthly, compared to 19 monthly spam calls for men in the same category.
14. 45–54-year-old American men and women were targeted alike by spam messaging.
Each group averaged about 20.9 monthly spam messages, according to a 2022 survey.
15. In 2022, American male seniors got more spam messages than their female counterparts.
Men aged 65+ get about 30.8 spam messages per month, compared to 20.3 average spam messages for 65+ women.
16. In 2022, younger women received more spam texts than younger men.
On average, 18–34-year-old women got 18 spam messages per month.
Men sat lower than that, with 13.7 spam messages reaching their devices.
Across the 35-44 years bracket, women would get 19.4 spam messages per month, while men would receive 16.7 spam texts in the same month.
17. The US, Russia, and China sent the most spam emails globally in 2021.
As of October 2021, the US was estimated to have generated over 8.6 billion spam emails. China was second with over 8.5 billion spam emails, while Russia came third with 8.09 billion spam emails sent.
18. Texas got the highest spam texts in the US in 2021.
Texas received over 10 billion text spam messages in 2021, followed by California with just over 9 billion. New York was in third with 7.86 billion+, then a notable drop to 4.7 billion text spams in Florida. Rounding up the top five was Ohio, with just over 4 billion text spam in the year.
<p><strong>Please include attribution to vpnAlert.com with this graphic.</strong><br><br><a href="https://vpnalert.com/resources/spam-statistics/" data-wpel-link="internal"><img src="https://vpnalert.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/texas-highest-spam-texts.png" alt="Texas Got the Highest Spam Texts in the US" width="768" border="0" height="544.35912581217" loading="lazy" fetchpriority="low" srcset="https://vpnalert.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/texas-highest-spam-texts-768x544.png 768w, https://vpnalert.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/texas-highest-spam-texts-300x213.png 300w, https://vpnalert.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/texas-highest-spam-texts-1024x726.png 1024w, https://vpnalert.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/texas-highest-spam-texts-1536x1089.png 1536w, https://vpnalert.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/texas-highest-spam-texts.png 1693w" sizes="auto"></a></p>
19. Americans were sent 14.3 billion spam texts in January 2023 alone.
That works into an average of 52 spam texts for every US resident.
20. California received the most spam robotexts in H1 2022.
California recorded over 6.445 billion spam texts in that timeframe, beating Texas (with over 6.04 billion spam texts) by a healthy margin. In third was New York, with 4.657 billion spam texts at the end of H1 2022.
21. 95% of Indian WhatsApp users received spam on the platform daily.
Only 5% of users claim to have never received any spam message on the social media platform as of 2022.
22. Over 4 in 10 Indian WhatsApp users got up to 3 spam messages daily in 2022.
44% of India’s social media messaging platform users got 1-3 spam messages daily in 2022. 29% of users reported getting 4-7 spam messages on WhatsApp daily, while 22% contend with 8+ spam messages daily.
Spam Call Statistics
23. In 2022, 43% of scammed Americans downloaded a spam call blocker.
The number was slightly higher (44%) in 2021. However, 6% of these scammed people did not take any action, compared to 7% of the same group in 2021.
24. 25% of spam blocker users claimed to have missed a legitimate call in 2022.
Still, almost 90% of Americans (86%) only answer calls where they see the caller ID first.
25. In 2022, 67% of Americans would ignore a call from a number they do not have saved or recognize.
Another 65% of Americans claim they would delete the unknown number from their device.
26. 51% of Americans reported a higher percentage of spam calls with their area codes in 2022.
In contrast, 35% claimed the number of such neighbor-spoofing calls they got remained the same from 2021.
27. 7% of Americans have never received a spam call from their area code.
Another 7% claim to have received such calls, but with a decreased incidence in 2022 compared to 2021.
28. In 2022, over 6 in 10 Americans believed they might miss important calls thought to be spam.
While 63% fear missing a legitimate call thought to be spam, another 51% have been on the receiving end of having their calls ignored for being considered spam.
29. Over 69% of monthly spam calls Americans received in 2022 were robocalls.
They accounted for 21.5 of the monthly average of 31 spam calls per American user in 2022.
30. 60% of spam robocalls (the majority) in 2022 were around vehicle warranties.
37% of these spam calls were focused on Medicare, 29% claimed to be from the IRS, and another 14% pushed cryptocurrency investments.
| Spam Robocall Type | Prevalence |
|---|---|
| Vehicle warranty | 60% |
| Medicare | 37% |
| Tax or legal debts | 34% |
| Switching plans (cable, mobile satellite, etc.) | 32% |
| Lotteries | 30% |
| IRS | 29% |
| SSN suspension | 29% |
| Crypto investments | 14% |
| Others | 13% |
31. Almost 4 in 10 survey respondents got telemarketing spam calls daily in 2022.
This is broken down into 30% of respondents who got such spam calls daily and another 9% who got more than one such spam call per day.
32. Only 11% of people have never gotten a spam telemarketing call.
But 21% claim to get such spam calls at least once a month, while it was a weekly occurrence for 29% of people in 2022.
33. 34% of respondents in 2022 blocked a spam call number without answering.
Another 49% did not bother answering the call, while 5% reported being rude to the spam callers.
34. Americans saw an estimated 40 billion spam calls in H1 2022.
By the end of the year, the figure was predicted to hit over 86 billion spam calls.
35. In June 2022, 45% of spam calls were spoofed.
This was higher than any other reporting timeframe, except in October 2021, when 47% of spam calls were also spoofed. However, there were almost 8 billion spam calls in June 2022, while October 2021 saw slightly above 6 billion spam calls.
Thus, the June 2022 volume of spoofed calls remains higher.
36. March 2022 saw the most non-spoofed spam calls in the US.
59% of calls in March 2022 were not spoofed out of a pool of almost 8 billion spam calls recorded in the month alone. While there were 67% of non-spoofed calls in July 2021, the month saw less than 6 billion total spam calls. Thus, giving March 2022 the general lead by volume of calls.
Spam Text Statistics
37. 85% of Americans have received a spam robotext in the past 12 months.
Reporting data from 2022 also shows that 15% of Americans have yet to receive such texts in the same period.
<p><strong>Please include attribution to vpnAlert.com with this graphic.</strong><br><br><a href="https://vpnalert.com/resources/spam-statistics/" data-wpel-link="internal"><img src="https://vpnalert.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/spam-robotext.png" alt="85 Percent of Americans Have Received a Spam Robotext" width="768" border="0" height="544.35912581217" loading="lazy" fetchpriority="low" srcset="https://vpnalert.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/spam-robotext-768x544.png 768w, https://vpnalert.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/spam-robotext-300x213.png 300w, https://vpnalert.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/spam-robotext-1024x726.png 1024w, https://vpnalert.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/spam-robotext-1536x1089.png 1536w, https://vpnalert.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/spam-robotext.png 1693w" sizes="auto"></a></p>
38. 65+ years old Americans were the likeliest to be targeted by spam text campaigns.
Seniors in this age group got 25.1 spam texts per user per month in 2022.
The 45-54 age group came second with 21 spam texts per user per month, while the 55-64 age group (18.1) was third.
39. 29% of 2022 survey respondents got spam SMS texts daily.
Another 29% got spam texts of this kind weekly, while 18% never received any spam text.
40. In 2022, 17% of SMS users got spam texts daily.
7% of respondents got more than one spam SMS text per day.
41. Over 376 million daily spam texts were sent in the US in 2021.
This translated to over 2.6 billion spam texts per week, with more than 555.4 million coming on the weekends alone.
42. Spam texts increased by 28% between February to March 2022.
Compared to April 2021, the volume of spam texts in March 2022 had risen by 1024%.
43. The average US user got 16.9 spam texts in 2021.
This number was 15% lower (at 14.7 spam texts per user) in 2020.
44. Americans received over 66 billion spam robotexts in H1 2022 alone.
Even though many scams go unreported, these spam texts were expected to cause over $28 billion in financial losses in 2022.
Email Spam Statistics
45. In 2022, almost 1 in 4 emails were spam.
A 2022 survey of over 1,000 respondents established that 36% of all email content is spam. However, some other industry studies put the number as high as 73%.
46. Over 6 in 10 email users also used spam filters in 2022.
Of these, 51% relied on the spam filters outfitted with their email inbox provider.
3% got a paid tool, while the rest relied on other free spam filters.
47. 54% of email users deleted spam once they found it in their inbox.
The 2022 data also shows that 22% marked the email as spam if it passed through automatic detection. However, only 9% would block and report the spam email to inbox providers.
<p><strong>Please include attribution to vpnAlert.com with this graphic.</strong><br><br><a href="https://vpnalert.com/resources/spam-statistics/" data-wpel-link="internal"><img src="https://vpnalert.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/email-users-delete-spam.png" alt="54 Percent Of Email Users Deleted Spam From Their Inbox" width="768" border="0" height="544.35912581217" loading="lazy" fetchpriority="low" srcset="https://vpnalert.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/email-users-delete-spam-768x544.png 768w, https://vpnalert.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/email-users-delete-spam-300x213.png 300w, https://vpnalert.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/email-users-delete-spam-1024x726.png 1024w, https://vpnalert.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/email-users-delete-spam-1536x1089.png 1536w, https://vpnalert.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/email-users-delete-spam.png 1693w" sizes="auto"></a></p>
48. Over 45% of emails sent in December 2021 were spam emails.
In context, almost 320 billion emails were sent and received daily in 2021.
Spam Statistics by Industry
49. Delivery spam text scams were the most prolific in the USA in 2022.
By H1 2022, an estimated 5.875 billion delivery spam texts were already sent to users. This was projected to reach over 13 billion by the end of the year.
The travel spam text category recorded over 780.5 million messages by H1 2022.
It was projected to reach over 1.7 billion text messages by the end of the year.
It was the second most popular category among spammers for the year, projected to reach almost 4 billion texts by the end of the year.
Social Media Spam Statistics
52. Facebook removed 734 million spam content in Q2 2022 alone.
This was less than 1.8 billion spam content removed by the social media giant in Q1 2022. However, the highest spam removal period was in Q4 2019, when 2.9 billion spam content was removed from the platform.
53. 31% of a 2022 survey’s respondents reported seeing spam on Facebook.
About 22% saw spam content on Instagram, another property of Meta (Facebook’s parent company). Only 6% of users had seen spam on LinkedIn, making it the safest (relatively spam-free) social media network.
| Social Media Network | % Spam Reports |
|---|---|
| 31% | |
| 22% | |
| TikTok | 16% |
| Snapchat | 13% |
| 12% | |
| 6% |
Likewise, another 20% got spam DMs daily across their social media networks.
Another 21% got spam DMs monthly, and 14% of respondents got these DMs weekly.
56. Q2 2019 saw more spam removal on YouTube than any other quarter up until Q3 2022.
66.7% of all video content removed on YouTube in Q2 2019 was due to spam.
However, the number of spam-related video removals on YouTube had fallen to 3.9% by Q3 2022.
57. TikTok blocked over 226 million spam account creations in Q3 2021.
This was the highest volume of blocked spam account creations per quarter, followed by over 152 million blocked spam account creations in Q4 2021.
58. Over 202 million TikTok spam accounts were removed in Q1 2022.
This number fell to over 75 million removals by Q2 2022.
59. Over 72 million TikTok videos were removed via spam account removal in Q2 2022.
As of Q1 2022, just over 21 million videos were removed due to removal actions on spam accounts.
60. 1 in 10 active Twitter accounts posted spam content in 2022.
This 2022 report also shows that spam accounts have posted an average of 59 daily tweets since they were created. In contrast, the standard for non-spam accounts was ten daily tweets.
61. Spam Twitter accounts were most likely to retweet all their timeline tweets.
2022 research data shows a 100% retweet rate in the last 200 tweets on such an account’s timeline. In comparison, non-spam accounts retweeted only 34% of their last 200 tweets, on average.
62. In 2022, 68% of tweets generated by a spam Twitter account contained a link.
This finding was based on the past 200 tweets of spam and non-spam accounts, where the latter only had 28% of its tweets having a link included.
63. Spam Twitter accounts were most likely to post up to 8 times per hour.
In 2022, non-spam users posted about 0.83 times per hour, considering their last 200 tweets alone.
<p><strong>Please include attribution to vpnAlert.com with this graphic.</strong><br><br><a href="https://vpnalert.com/resources/spam-statistics/" data-wpel-link="internal"><img src="https://vpnalert.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/spam-twitter-accounts.png" alt="Spam Twitter Accounts Post up to 8 Times per Hour" width="768" border="0" height="544.35912581217" loading="lazy" fetchpriority="low" srcset="https://vpnalert.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/spam-twitter-accounts-768x544.png 768w, https://vpnalert.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/spam-twitter-accounts-300x213.png 300w, https://vpnalert.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/spam-twitter-accounts-1024x726.png 1024w, https://vpnalert.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/spam-twitter-accounts-1536x1089.png 1536w, https://vpnalert.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/04/spam-twitter-accounts.png 1693w" sizes="auto"></a></p>
In contrast, 38% of non-spam accounts tweeted in plain text without adding hashtags, links, or attachments.
Spam Impact Statistics
65. An estimated $9 billion was lost to spam texts in H1 2022.
The year 2022 was projected to see a 179% increase in losses to spam texts than the previous year.
66. Of the reported spam call scams, Americans lost an estimated $30 billion in H1 2022.
It was expected that the number would climb to over $59 billion at the end of the year, representing a 96% increase in spam call-related financial losses compared to 2021.
Avoid the Deadly Digital Twins
Spam and scam often go hand in hand, making it more important to keep them far from you. However, spam actors will not stop, given that it is a cheap way to reach many people at once – and they rake in billions yearly from their scams.
Now that you know where they can come from, what forms they take, and how they affect your demographic, it is time to sit up against them. Start by getting familiar with phishing spam attacks and other social engineering attempts.
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