Robocalls Surge in Battleground States Ahead of US Election, Press Release

Robocall bad actors are increasingly targeting American voters in swing states ahead of the 2024 Presidential Election, according to Transaction Network Services (TNS) Q3 Robocall Investigation Report. Arizona, Michigan, New Hampshire, Nevada and Wisconsin voters were each bombarded with more than 100,000 political robocalls during the final week of September - ranking as the top five states in political robocalls received per capita.

TNS is a leading source for robocall data, analyzing more than 1.5 billion daily call events across hundreds of carrier networks to uncover the latest trends and scams. Since 2018, TNS has tracked robocall activity around US elections, offering critical insights into patterns of potential malicious activity.

The latest report details the extent to which voters in traditional battleground states, as well as those with highly competitive state and local races, have been targeted aggressively by political robocalls. The report identifies the most common scams targeting voters, including potential disinformation attempts.

"TNS' Q3 Robocall Investigation Report highlights bad actors' attempts to steal Americans' personal information and impact election outcomes with potential disinformation through political robocalls," said Denny Randolph, President of TNS Communications Market. "These unwanted political robocalls pose great risks to the American public, which is why all stakeholders - network operators, regulators and policymakers, and solutions providers - must focus on protecting Americans and restoring trust in the voice channel."

The Q3 2024 Robocall Investigation Report includes key new insights from TNS' most recent political robocall analysis including:

• Fake voting registration sites used for data collection scams. Scammers lure victims to fraudulent website links disguised as voter registration websites, where Americans are prompted to enter sensitive information. TNS has detected several instances where calls were made in an attempt to direct voters to illegitimate registration sites.

• Political robocalls have spiked around major political developments. TNS data shows political robocall volume jumps during critical election cycle events, including the initial presidential debate between Donald Trump and Joe Biden in late June, the Trump assassination attempt and the Republican Convention in July, and the Democratic Convention in August.

• Top political scams. Bad actors have deployed various voice and text scams during election season to create confusion and trick voters into providing their personal information. The top scams TNS has observed include fake voter registration, fundraising donation requests, and misleading claims that people can vote over the phone.
• Robocall data backed by voter sentiment. TNS' latest robocall data is supported by voter sentiment captured in the company's recently commissioned survey: 71% of respondents believe voters in battleground states are more likely to be targeted by AI deepfake robocall attempts than those in non-battleground states. Additionally, 60% of US adults feel that robocalls and robotexts are being used to undermine confidence in the 2024 Presidential Election.

To gain access to the latest robocall data trends and insights, download the TNS Q3 2024 Robocall Investigation Report: tnsi.com/resource/com/tns-robocall-investigation-report/