US leads world in unwanted scam calls, emails and texts

Americans receive fraudulent or scam messages twice as much as other countries, according to new research.

A poll of 10,500 adults from around the world found that the average American navigates an average of nine calls, nine emails and another seven text messages every single week, or about 100 scam encounters per month.

Similarly, Brits navigate an average of 84 different scam attempts during a typical month.

By comparison, those in Singapore only encounter three scam calls and texts per week as well as four emails, or a total of 40 scam attempts per month, while Australians fall somewhere in between, navigating about 52 spam messages per month.

Those in the U.K. and the U.S. top the list of the most emails in their spam inboxes right now, both averaging more than 350, while Indonesians average less than half of that, about 154.

More often than not, respondents either delete messages immediately (53%) or block the sender (52%) upon receiving a fraudulent message, though about a quarter of those in India (23%) and the United Arab Emirates (27%) will try to verify the address it was sent from, just to be sure.

Almost half (46%) of Indians and more than one-third of Brits (35%) are the most likely to answer a phone call that says “potential spam,” compared to 31% of Americans and just 22% of Swedes.

And it seems scams are integrating into just about every aspect of life — even on social media, people can’t escape fraud. Across the globe, people average five weekly spam messages on their social channels.

Conducted by Talker Research on behalf of Ping Identity, the survey took a realistic look at how people across the globe battle bots and sniff out scams in the age of AI.

Compared to five years ago, three-quarters of respondents are more concerned about the security of their personal and private information.

On top of that, only 23% of those polled are “very confident” in their ability to determine if something is legitimate or a scam.

Interestingly, saving sensitive information such as passwords and payment details on social media (25%) ranked as one of the top online activities that make people feel most susceptible to fraud, scams or identity theft.

Twenty-three percent even find that using social media in general leaves them feeling vulnerable, with Indonesia (31%) being the most wary.

Across the board, people are overwhelmingly most concerned about financial fraud (46%), followed by personal data breaches (25%).

“According to the survey, respondents use just 12 unique passwords for work, and 17 for personal accounts, which is not only a huge inconvenience but exposes significant risk, as passwords are the number one cause of breaches,” said Darryl Jones, Vice President of Consumer Segment Strategy at Ping Identity. "Passwords alone are not enough to protect your data; they’re easily compromised, and attackers are even impersonating multi-factor authentication requests. A stronger option is to adopt passkeys, which use a private key stored on your device and are protected by biometrics like face or touch ID. Passkeys are both a safer and simpler way to keep your information secure in the age of AI.”

And as the 21st Century continues to unfold, fraud attempts are only going to get more sophisticated.

AI-driven phishing (39%) or personalized messages meant to trick individuals into revealing sensitive information, and fake apps (38%) mimicking legitimate services or vendors (but with malware), are the top two most concerning “futuristic” methods.

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Across the globe, 23% of those polled have actually fallen victim to some type of fraud, scam or identity theft.

Financial identity fraud (25%) and account take-overs (21%) were the most common schemes.

This may be because respondents find themselves forgetting or misplacing a password (38%) more often than they use multi-factor authentication (30%).

“Consumer confidence in global brands is eroding fast. We’ve entered a ‘trust nothing’ era, where people are questioning every call, message, and even the companies they once relied on,” said Jones. “The challenge now is for organizations to prove they deserve that trust, and that starts with stronger, smarter identity protection.”

TOP “MODERN” SCAMS PEOPLE AROUND THE WORLD FEAR MOST

• AI-driven phishing (personalized AI messages written using data from social media or web history that are meant to trick individuals into revealing sensitive information) - 39%
• Fake apps (apps mimicking legitimate services or vendors, but with malware) - 38%
• Deepfake attacks (AI-generated video or audio mimicking someone you know, such as a celebrity, public figure, or CEO) - 32%
• Voice cloning scams (using a friend or family member’s voice to create convincing calls) - 31%
• Synthetic identity fraud (creating a new identity using a combination of both real and fake data) - 29%
• AI-generated influencers and personalities (AI influencer and social media accounts, may ask for donations, merchandise, etc.) - 29%
• Augmented Reality (AR) scams (fake or manipulated digital content within an AR environment; may involve overlaying fake offers, costs, etc.) - 21%

Survey methodology:

Talker Research surveyed 10,500 general population adults (2,000 U.S., 2,000 U.K., 1,000 France, 1,000 Germany, 1,000 Australia, 1,000 Singapore, 500 India, 500 Indonesia, 500 Netherlands, 500 Sweden, 500 UAE); the survey was commissioned by Ping Identity and administered and conducted online by Talker Research between July 28 and Aug. 11, 2025.

We are sourcing from a non-probability frame and the two main sources we use are:

• Traditional online access panels — where respondents opt-in to take part in online market research for an incentive
• Programmatic — where respondents are online and are given the option to take part in a survey to receive a virtual incentive usually related to the online activity they are engaging in

Those who did not fit the specified sample were terminated from the survey. As the survey is fielded, dynamic online sampling is used, adjusting targeting to achieve the quotas specified as part of the sampling plan.

Regardless of which sources a respondent came from, they were directed to an Online Survey, where the survey was conducted in English; a link to the questionnaire can be shared upon request. Respondents were awarded points for completing the survey. These points have a small cash-equivalent monetary value.

Cells are only reported on for analysis if they have a minimum of 80 respondents, and statistical significance is calculated at the 95% level. Data is not weighted, but quotas and other parameters are put in place to reach the desired sample.

Interviews are excluded from the final analysis if they failed quality-checking measures. This includes:

• Speeders: Respondents who complete the survey in a time that is quicker than one-third of the median length of interview are disqualified as speeders
• Open ends: All verbatim responses (full open-ended questions as well as other please specify options) are checked for inappropriate or irrelevant text
• Bots: Captcha is enabled on surveys, which allows the research team to identify and disqualify bots
• Duplicates: Survey software has “deduping” based on digital fingerprinting, which ensures nobody is allowed to take the survey more than once

It is worth noting that this survey was only available to individuals with internet access, and the results may not be generalizable to those without internet access.