STOCKHOLM, April 21, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Truecaller, the leading global platform for safe and trusted communication, today released findings from its new 2026 Phone Fraud & AI Threat Survey, revealing that AI-powered scams have moved well beyond an emerging threat and are now costing people money, eroding trust and leaving consumers so wary of scam attempts that many are avoiding phone calls and text messages altogether.
The survey examined how AI-powered scams are reshaping the way Americans communicate and what’s at stake when trust in everyday phone calls and texts breaks down. Americans were asked about their firsthand experiences with scam calls and texts, their awareness of AI and deepfake tactics, the financial toll of falling victim, and whether they feel adequately protected.
Fear and AI Are Hampering Everyday Communication
75% of respondents report being targeted by a scam call or text in the past 12 months, and 84% say they are more concerned about the threat today than a year ago. The impact on everyday behavior is alarming: 82% say they have ignored important calls or texts out of fear it was a scam, a sharp rise from 59% in Truecaller’s 2024 survey. For the 33% of respondents who say calls and texts are “very” or “critically” important to their work, this avoidance comes with real professional consequences.
“People are no longer just screening spam — they’re screening out real life,” said Clayton LiaBraaten, senior executive advisor at Truecaller. “When people miss calls from doctors, schools, clients and family members because they can’t tell what’s real, this stops being a nuisance. It becomes a trust crisis.”
AI-powered scams are no longer hypothetical – they’re happening. In the past 12 months, 30% of respondents received a deepfake voice call impersonating a family member, celebrity or political figure that felt more convincing than any scam they had previously encountered.
The Financial Damage Is Real, and AI Is Making It Worse
With 78% of respondents knowing AI is being used against them, the threat has moved beyond awareness into real financial harm. In the past 12 months, one in four respondents fell victim to a scam that cost them money, with 7% losing more than $250. The data shows that AI is a significant factor in who gets deceived. Among respondents who lost money, 53% had received a deepfake voice call, compared to just 22% of those who were targeted but did not lose money.
The survey also found that identity theft has surpassed direct financial loss as the top concern for the coming year. This anxiety is compounded by a lack of preparedness. Half of the respondents admit they would not know the exact steps to take to protect their identity or recover lost funds if targeted today.
Consumers Feel Exposed and Unprotected
Distrust in institutional safeguards compounds the problem. 75% of respondents say the U.S. government is not adequately protecting consumers from AI-driven scams, and 39% say recent regulatory changes, including shifts in funding and staffing for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, have undermined their confidence in scam-prevention efforts. Taken together, the findings paint a picture of a public that feels increasingly unprotected.
Yet even as institutional trust erodes, most people aren’t filling the gap with additional tools. 63% say they do not use any third-party app or service beyond their carrier’s built-in tools to block scam calls or texts. When asked what matters most in a protection solution, respondents ranked automatic blocking of fraudulent calls first, followed by unknown caller identification — two functions where default tools often fall short.
“What we’re witnessing is a full-blown communication paralysis crisis where millions of people are so afraid of being scammed that they’ve stopped answering their phones altogether,” said LiaBraaten. “As AI grows in sophistication and makes scams more convincing, default tools simply can’t keep up. People deserve tools that evolve faster than the threats they face, and our mission is to build trust in communication and help people know who’s really on the other end to restore confidence in picking up the phone.”
Scammers rely on urgency and fear to override good judgment, and slowing down remains one of the most effective defenses available. Truecaller, which is used by more than 500 million users worldwide, always recommends that consumers download a trusted caller ID application, never share sensitive personal or financial information over the phone, avoid clicking unknown links in text messages, register with the Do Not Call list, report any fraudulent call and take time to verify the identity of any caller before responding. To learn more, visit www.truecaller.com.
About the Survey
The Truecaller 2026 Phone Fraud & AI Threat Survey is based on an online survey of 1,614 U.S. adults conducted by Centiment from Feb. 20 to March 17, 2026. Additional survey findings are available from Truecaller Insights.
About Truecaller
Truecaller is an essential part of everyday communication for over 500 million active users worldwide, with more than one billion downloads since launch and 68 billion spam and fraud calls identified in 2025 alone. The company is headquartered in Stockholm and has been publicly listed on Nasdaq Stockholm since October 2021. For more information, visit www.truecaller.com.
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Uproar by Moburst for Truecaller
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