March 02, 2026
AI Turned Phone Fraud into an Arms Race the Carriers Are Losing
A 90-year-old woman received a call from her grandson asking for money. Except it was not her grandson but an AI-generated clone of his voice. She stopped answering the phone alone for months. Her story is one of millions.
Hiya’s State of the Call 2026 report, based on a survey of more than 12,000 consumers across the US, UK, Canada, France, Germany, and Spain, reveals that AI-powered phone fraud has grown into a crisis, causing consumers to lose patience with their phone carriers.
Scammers Are Outpacing Carriers
The report reveals that over 25% of Americans received an AI deepfake voice call in the past year. Another 24% say they would not be able to tell a real call from a fake one, meaning nearly half the US population has either been targeted by AI voice fraud or has no reliable way to detect it.
When asked who is winning the fight between carriers and scammers, Americans picked scammers by nearly 2-to-1. The volume of unwanted calls is making things even worse. Americans now receive an average of 9.9 unwanted calls per week, more than 500 a year, growing at a 16% compounded annual rate since 2023. Nearly half of Americans (48%) say phone spam is getting worse, outnumbering those who think it is improving by 3-to-1.
Across all six markets surveyed, consumers receive an average of 7.4 unwanted calls per week, also growing at 16% annually. French consumers deal with the highest call volumes, while British consumers lose the most money per scam victim.
Consumers Are Ready to Walk
The report finds that 38% of consumers are ready to switch providers over inadequate fraud protection, posing a serious commercial threat for operators already competing hard on price and coverage.
While consumer-facing tools may help detect deepfake calls in real time, these solutions are not enough on their own. Consumers want protection built into the network itself, and they are prepared to leave operators who fail to deliver it.
Across all six markets, consumers want governments to hold mobile network operators financially accountable for fraud that occurs on their networks.
The Human Cost
Adults aged 55 and over are being hit hardest, losing an average of $1,298 to phone scams, roughly triple the losses reported by younger adults. For many seniors, the phone is a primary connection to family and the outside world. AI fraud is turning that lifeline into a source of anxiety.
The financial losses matter, but so does what happens to people’s relationship with a tool they depend on. When a phone call can no longer be trusted, the damage extends well beyond any single scam.
Alex Algard, CEO and Founder of Hiya, was direct about what needs to happen: “We are in an arms race where scammers are using AI as a weapon, which means operators have to use AI as a shield. The only path forward is embedding state-of-the-art AI directly into the telecom infrastructure to authenticate callers before the phone ever rings.”
Scammers use generative AI to clone voices, scale their operations, and outpace an industry still relying on defences built for a bygone era.
