Spam Call Complaints: Illinois Is 4th Among All 50 States

If you're absolutely sick and tired of spam and/or scam calls, you are far from being alone.

Illinoisans have had it up to here with con artists on the phone, and we're not hesitating to let agencies like the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) know about it, according to a new report.

We're not number-one in the nation when it comes to spam call complaints, but Illinois is firmly in the top five.

We Get All Types Of Spam Calls Here In Illinois...And No One But The People Doing It Likes Anything About The Situation

If it feels like your phone rings more for scammers than actual friends and family these days, you’re definitely not imagining things. Illinois residents are getting hammered with spam and scam calls, but at least we’re fighting back harder than almost everyone else in America.

Whether it’s fake insurance offers, bogus “extended warranty” calls, IRS scams, or mysterious callers spoofing local 815, 779, 847, or 312 numbers, the flood of junk calls seems endless. Many scammers now use technology that makes the number appear local, increasing the odds someone will answer. The FTC warns that caller ID can easily be faked, and many robocalls are outright illegal.

The FTC says prerecorded sales calls are generally prohibited unless a consumer has given written permission to receive them. There are exceptions for things like school closings, healthcare reminders, political calls, charities, and debt collection notices, but many of the annoying calls people receive every day absolutely violate federal rules.

Illinois residents clearly are not just shrugging and accepting it.

Only Arizona, Florida, And Tennessee Complain About The Volume Of Spam Calls More Than We Do In Illinois

Here are the top ten most-complaining states when it comes to spam calls:

1. Arizona
2. Florida
3. Tennessee
4. Illinois
5. Nevada
6. Colorado
7. Michigan
8. Ohio
9. New Jersey
10. Oklahoma

The FTC encourages consumers to report spam calls because complaint data helps investigators track trends and target large-scale robocall operations. Officials also recommend never pressing buttons to “remove yourself” from call lists, since scammers often use that to confirm your number is active, which then leads to even more unwanted calls.

There is at least a little good news.

Federal regulators say overall robocall complaints nationwide have dropped in recent years as enforcement efforts and new anti-spoofing technology have improved. Still, for many Illinoisans, it probably doesn’t feel that way when the phone lights up three times before lunch with “Scam Likely” flashing across the screen.