The term vishing originates from “voice phishing,” which means a phishing attack using voice.
Vishing is a type of cybercrime where scammers use phones to steal personal confidential data from the victims.
In this form of scams, cybercriminals use different engineering tactics to convince innocent people to provide private information and access to their bank accounts.
Like phishing, scammers, in the case of vishing, also rely on convincing victims that they’re doing the right thing by responding to the scam caller.
In fact, a scammer typically pretends to be calling from the tax department, government, bank, or police. However, scam callers use new and advanced tactics to fool innocent people.
Here are some shocking vishing statistics that will help you get an insight into the cruel world of vishing.
Key Statistics
- Over 59.4 million people in America fell victim to vishing in 2021
- The average reported loss to vishing increased 43% in 2021
- 59% of Americans received scam calls related to COVID-19 in 2021
- Youngsters between the ages of 18-44 years are more susceptible to vishing attacks
- An average American received nearly 31 spam calls a month in 2021
- Peru recorded more than 12 million spam calls in October 2021
- Mexican people received over 3.2 million spam calls in October 2021
- People are most likely to lose money if the scammer contacts via phone call
- Yorkshire and Humber are the most-targeted British locations for vishing attacks
- Scam callers record the home addresses of victims before scam calls
Detailed Vishing Statistics in 2025
1. Over 59.4 Million People in America Fell Victim to Vishing in 2021
In 2021, more than 59.49 million Americans (23%) lost money to vishing. Moreover, 56 (22%) million in 2020 and 43 million in 2019.
That clearly shows that the number of vishing attacks in the United States is rising. In addition, it’s the highest number of spam calls recorded in the US.
2. Americans Lost Around 29.8 Billion USD to Vishing in 2021
The total money lost to voice phishing in the United States has increased significantly over the past few years.
In fact, Americans lost an estimated 29.8 billion USD to phone scams in 2021. That’s a 49.7% increase compared to the money lost in 2020, 19.7 billion USD.
3. the Average Reported Loss to Vishing Increased 43% in 2021
The average money lost due to vishing by an average American was 502 USD in 2021. That’s a 43% increase compared to 2020, 351 USD.
But the numbers aren’t following an upward trend.
In fact, there was a downward trend in the years 2015 and 2019.
However, 2021 recorded the highest average amount of money lost to voice phishing.
4. In 2021, Around 60% of Americans Will Lose Money Due to Scam Calls
As per the reports, 59.8% and 61.5% of citizens of the United States lost their money to spam calls in 2019 and 2020, respectively.
However, there was a reduction in the number of victims in 2021.
3 out of 5 Americans (60.0%) claimed that they’ve lost their hard-earned money because of vishing attacks in the past year.
As per FTC (Federal Trade Commission), any spam call trying to sell you something is illegal.
However, if the caller has written permission to call you (directly from you), the situation is slightly different; the FTC will recognize it as legal.
Well, you can always retain these rights any time you want.
5. 59% of Americans Have Received Scam Calls Related to COVID-19 in 2021
Since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, scammers around the world have been taking advantage of the situation with spam calls.
In fact, according to various trusted sources, about 59% of Americans have received spam calls related to COVID-19 in 2021, up from 44% in 2020.
However, as the situation is a bit under control now, we expect the trend of COVID-19-related spam calls to decrease in the following years.
6. Men Fall for The Prey of Vishing Attacks More than Women
As per the recent statistics, among those who’ve been victims of a scam call in 2021, around 59.4% of those were men, and only 38.3% were women.
The rest (2.3%) preferred not to reveal their gender.
7. Youngsters Between the Ages of 18-44 Years Are More Susceptible to Vishing Attacks
According to the latest stats, young men fall victim and lose money to voice phishing attacks, mainly men aged between 18-34 (40%) and aged between 35-44 (46%), compared to older men aged 45 or more (28%).
Also, the age groups among women most susceptible to a phone scam are aged between 18-34 (31%) and between 35-44 (25%).
8. Smartphones Are the Most Preferred Medium for Vishing
Mobile phones being something that bags the broadest audience base, it’s evident that scam calls over these devices are increasing day by day.
In fact, the numbers increased from 49% in 2014 to around 85% in 2021.
However, vishing over landlines has decreased from 36% in 2014 to 20% in 2021.
9. An Average American Received Nearly 31 Spam Calls a Month in 2021
Americans received 30.7 spam calls (landline and/or mobile) in an average month in 2021. Of these 30.7 calls, around 21.5 were robocalls.
Moreover, 3 out of Americans (i.e., 59%) received more spam calls (on a landline or mobile) in 2021 than in 2020.
While 14% said they’d received fewer in 2021.
Moreover, around 85% of Americans said that they only answer the calls if they can identify the number.
This clearly highlights how important it is to have an accurate and efficient caller ID service.
The good news is that 67% of Americans ignore a call if they receive it from an unknown number.
Vishing by Country
10. Brazilians Are Most Likely to Be Targeted in Vishing Attacks by Spammers
Brazil has been the most spammed country globally for the last four years now.
While it should be a wake-up call for the Brazilian authorities to start putting some high restrictions and fines for spammers who do vishing activities, they’re putting the problem mildly.
Speaking of numbers, 44.1% (the most significant chunk) of vishing in Brazil originated from financial services such as credit card companies, banks, loan providers, credit unions, and others in 2021.
However, the sales calls and total scam volume are 39% and 16.9% of all spam-marked calls.
11. Peru Recorded More than 12 Million Spam Calls in October 2021
Peru seems to yo-yo in terms of ranking when it’s about the most spammed countries.
That’s because it was ranked as the second most spammed country in 2019, went down to the fourteenth position in 2020, and in 2021 it again brags the second place.
No doubt, it’s high time for the individuals in Peru to increase the use of spam blocking services.
Unlike Brazil, 46.5% of all spam marked calls in 2021 originated from sales or telemarketing calls, and 37.3% were from financial services.
Moreover, Peru’s total percentage of vishing appears to be steady at 10.8% in 2021, up from 10% in 2020.
However, the number of incoming spam calls is constantly increasing.
The country received nearly 7.6 million spam calls in January, 10.2 million on April, 11 million in July, and over 12 million spam call in October 2021.
12. An Indian Scammer Made More than 202 Million Spam Calls in 2021
Okay, you might find it unbelievable, but more than 202 million spam calls were made by a spammer in India in 2021.
That’s more than 6,64,000 calls a day and 27,000 calls an hour.
In terms of spam categories, a vast majority of 93.5% of spam calls in India are calls related to sales or telemarketing.
However, the most common scam across the country is still the popular KYC scam.
The scammers pretend to be a digital payment service or bank, asking for KYC documents as made compulsory by the Reserve Bank of India.
Moreover, many Indians mentioned that the scammers typically lure unsuspecting victims under some pretext (lotteries, online sales, OTP, etc.) and trick them into downloading a remote access app.
And as a result, victims face a massive loss of money from cards, banks, and digital mobile wallets.
On top of all these, in 2021, an average individual in India received approximately 16.8 spam calls a month.
13. Mexican People Received Over 3.2 Million Spam Calls in October 2021
In 2021, some Mexican individuals reported scams related to COVID-19 emergencies and virtual kidnappings.
The scammers made a threatening call, claiming that they’d kidnapped one of the victim’s family members.
They asked the victim to transfer some money using Western Union (which is quick and irreversible) to set them free.
These scams make up around 4.8% of all spam calls in the country.
In addition, 74.6% of all spam calls in Mexico in 2021 originated from financial services like banks, loan providers, etc.
Moreover, there were 2.4 million spam calls in January, increasing to 3.2 million calls in October 2021.
Also, an average Mexican will receive around 15.5 spam calls a month in 2021.
14. Indonesia Recorded 25,789,283 (25.8 Million) Scam Calls in October 2021
In Indonesia, vishing scammers have a unique and precise way of targeting their victims; they often dig out their target’s financial history and complete background.
That’s a big issue in Indonesia, as few people recognize these as scams.
In fact, it contributes to only 1% of the marked scam call while the nuisance keeps on growing.
Recently, SOCRadar (a cyber security agency) published a threat view report for Indonesia which clarifies that dark web threats in the country are on the rise, and millions of Indonesians’ databases with information like mobile numbers, names, monthly salaries, date of birth, and their national identity number were sold on the dark web.
Moreover, when it comes to other categories of vishing calls in Indonesia in 2021, 80% of all spam calls originated from financial services, and sales calls make up only 19%.
Another important statistic for Indonesia is that it has recorded more than doubled spam calls from January to October 2021.
In fact, Indonesia recorded a spam call volume of nearly 12.6 million in January, which went up to around 25.8 million in October.
Moreover, one Indonesian received 14 spam calls a month.
Other Statistics
15. Scammers Are Most Likely to Target the Southern States
As per the 2021 Scam Shield Report of T-Mobile, Southern states such as Texas, Arizona, Georgia, and Florida received the most number of scam calls in 2021.
Moreover, scammers hit the residents of Fort Worth and Dallas the most.
16. People Are Most Likely to Lose Money if The Scammer Contracts via Phone Call
According to the reports of FTC in 2021, preys of voice scams lost an average of around 1,200 USD, while those who were contacted through email, text, or websites lost a lower sum of money.
That may be because of a scammer’s heavy pressure while speaking to the prey directly via phone call.
17. Scammers Usually Impersonate Authentic Businesses
The State of the Call survey 2022 of Hiya states that around 62% of the total scam calls in 2021 had the scammers lie about their identity.
And as a result, 12% of preys cease their contact with the impersonated authentic business.
18. Yorkshire and Humber Are the Most-Targeted British Locations for Vishing Attacks
National Accident Helpline found that individuals in the Humber and Yorkshire received more spam calls in 2021 than people in other locations of the United Kingdom.
In fact, 66% of these individuals received cold-called frequently, with around 20% of them receiving more than one call per day.
19. 38% of Businesses Have No Idea Whether the Customers Withered Their Calls as A Spam Calls or Not
Although most customers like to communicate to various businesses over calls (mainly if they’re talking to an insurance company or bank), customers are doubtful about unknown numbers.
Meanwhile, around 38% of companies don’t know if the customers marked them as “conceivable fraud.”
Besides that, 32% of enterprises know if they’re being flagged as a spam call and are ready to spend a premium to get their organization’s company ID verified.
20. Spam Call Period Was Down to 12 Seconds in 2021
The State of the Phone Call 2021 report of Hiya state that a moderate spam call merely lasts 12 seconds.
From these statistics, it’s pretty evident that people are growing more conscious of scammers and scam callers.
21. Scammers Approach Prey with Essential Personal Information
Scam callers do their study on victims before making a scam call to increase the probabilities of a successful scam.
In fact, in 2019, 75% of those who failed 1,000 USD or more in a vishing scam claimed that the scammer already possessed their necessary personal information before the scam call.
22. Scam Callers Register the Home Addresses of Victims Before Scam Calls
As per the recent statistics, around 39% of vishing victims claimed that the scam callers had already learned their home addresses before initiating the call.
Similarly, in approximately 17% of cases, scammers possessed some or most of the victims’ social security numbers.
23. Scammers Fooled People Into Offering Access to Their Personal Data
The scam call report in 2020 examined the chance of a victim in vishing attacks being tricked into passing over data.
The number of people who handed over their confidential data to scam callers in 2020 was near about 3.7 times more compelling than in 2019.
24. Scam Callers Can Quickly Acquire Credit Card Details
In 2020, First Orion surveyed various individuals worldwide on the impact of vishing involving financial information about their scam call reports.
As per the reports, people providing their credit card or SSN information to a scam caller affected 6.5 times more people in 2020 than the previous year.
25. Majority of The Scam Calls in The United States Use Number Spoofing
According to the scam trends report of First Orion, about 70% of scam calls in the United States uses number (neighborhood) spoofing to scam victims.
However, the FCC has introduced SHAKEN/STIR.
It’s a caller ID authentication system designed to make this type of fraudulent activity more difficult.
Conclusion
That’s pretty much everything to know with regards to important voice phishing statistics for 2025.
Vishing is a scam where scammers contact a potential victim over a phone call pretending to be a legit company and try to convince the victims to share personal information like credit cards and bank details.
While phishing still contributes to most cyberattacks, the increase in hybrid Vishing threats in 2021 & 2022 clearly shows how the scam callers are advancing their tactics to increase the success of these campaigns.
