EXCLUSIVE: Here’s how spam calls change consumer behavior
Fatigue from spam calls and texts is affecting shopper willingness to share information.
Data from a survey of 1,000 U.S. consumers conducted by privacy and identity protection service Cloaked and exclusively released to Chain Store Age indicates respondents receive an average of 16 spam calls and nine spam texts per month. Robocalls ranked as the most bothersome type of unwanted contact, with 58% of respondents naming them as their top frustration, followed by spam texts (20%) and phishing emails (14%).
Unsurprisingly, more than half of respondents (55%) refuse to share their real phone number on social media due to spam, while 33% decline to do so while online shopping and 26% won’t share their number with a rewards program.
More than one-quarter of respondents (27%) said they never answer calls from unknown numbers and another 23% let these calls go to voicemail, while 21% assume any unknown call is spam and completely ignore it. Altogether, around eight in 10 respondents rarely or never answer calls or texts from numbers they don't recognize.
Top spam threats
Phishing emails ranked first among respondents as the most convincing format (40%) and first as the format most likely to cause accidental engagement (32%). Social media direct messages ranked second for accidental engagement at 24%, while spam texts ranked third at 18%. Robocalls only prompted accidental engagement from 17% of respondents.
[READ MORE: Black Friday kicks off surge in phishing attacks on consumers]
Self-protection trends
More than half of respondents (53%) have enabled their carrier's spam filtering feature, while 43% said they avoid giving their real number online and 41% had registered on the national Do Not Call Registry. Smaller percentages have reported spam to their carrier or the Federal Trade Commission (32%), used a call-blocking app (23%) or used a burner phone number (11%).
When given a list of 15 major carriers, tech companies, and government agencies, 42% of respondents said they trust none of them to responsibly handle their personal phone data. The Do Not Call Registry led among all entities respondents trust with their personal phone data:
Cloaked surveyed 1,000 U.S. consumers in June 2026 about their experiences with spam and the sharing of personal information.
