Florida 2nd in nation for robocall complaints

If you’ve been bombarded with those annoying robocalls in South Florida, this item is for you.

Florida ranked second in the number of states with the most robocall complaints last year.

That’s according to Socialcatfish.com, which used data from the Federal Trade Commission and Federal Communications Commission for its new study, “The Rising Robocall Epidemic in America.”

As the third-largest state in the U.S. by population, it’s only logical that Florida is fertile territory for robocalls, but that doesn’t make them any less annoying.

The top five states with the most robocall complaints were California with 747,829, Florida with 427,404, Texas with 402,316, New York with 348,651 and Illinois with 252,935, according to socialcatfish, a Californiabased data investigation site.

The website also broke down the unwanted calls by category. Scams were the most common or 43.1 percent, followed by alerts/reminders with about 34 percent, payment reminders at more than 19 percent and telemarketing with 13 percent.

There is some good news. The report comes as the number of robocalls impacting U.S. and South Florida cellphone owners has been declining this year due to increased enforcement and blocking efforts by government agencies and service providers. In June, YouMail, a robocall blocking service, reported that Americans received 4.4 billion of such calls that month. The number represented the third straight drop since March, when there were about 5.23 billion calls, a record high.

What can you do to avoid the robocalls?

You can register your number with the National Do Not Call Registry at donotcall.gov, don’t respond to questions that require a “yes” reply from unfamiliar numbers and download robocall blocking apps such as Robokiller and Mr. Number and don’t answer calls from unknown numbers.

To complain about robocalls, visit the FCC site at https://consumercomplaints.fcc.gov or call 888-225-5322 and press No. 4.