Colorado gets 27 million scam calls a month, and they cost more now

Coloradans receive about 27 million unwanted robocalls every month, and the scams that get through are paying off more. The Colorado Public Interest Research Group, known as COPIRG, says scammers now take up to $4,000 per successful call and up to $2,000 per successful text.

What changed

Federal rules passed in 2021 told phone carriers to verify caller IDs, which means checking that a call really comes from the number it shows. Scam calls nationwide did fall, from 2.8 billion a month to 2.1 billion. That is still a huge amount. And only 42% of phone companies have installed the required technology.

Danny Katz, COPIRG's executive director, says AI voice cloning and the wide availability of personal data have made today's scams far harder to spot than those from a few years ago.

Two Coloradans, two close calls

John Clark has Parkinson's disease. In July 2025, a romance scammer built an emotional bond with him over time, then disappeared with $3,000. Clark said the scammer told him he would be taken care of for life. He said sharing his diagnosis may have made him a more attractive target.

In April 2025, Longmont resident Clint Bales got a text that looked like an official E-470 toll notice. It included his truck's exact model and license plate number. Bales said it passed every test he ran in his head, and he nearly paid the fake fine.

Why real details prove nothing

Scammers pull together personal data to make a contact seem official. A message that knows your name, your vehicle or your health is not necessarily real. Katz also says AI makes it much easier to fake voices and build authentic-sounding calls and texts. Voice quality alone is no longer a reliable sign.

What to do

• Pause before paying anyone who contacts you out of the blue.
• Check through an official number, not the one in the call or text.
• Do not treat personal details as proof that a message is real.
• Do not trust a voice just because it sounds convincing.

What happens next

Katz wants the FCC's Robocall Response Team to hold carriers that have not complied accountable. He praised state attorneys general for acting and said the legislature could do more. But he believes the real lever is federal. No timeline has been given for stronger enforcement. Until then, COPIRG says the burden falls on individual Coloradans to stay skeptical.