Sorry but it's a bit of a non-answer. "Some people get (or do, or are) X" is a nearly universal truth.
After looking into it a bit more, spam calls seem to be significantly less prevalent in many smaller EU countries that speak their own language when compared to the global average. Probably because it's harder to find scammers speaking the language, or it's less cost-effective to target those demographics.
A lot of reliable research is paywalled, but from what I was able to scrape together, it seems like people in Germany get about 3 times as many spam calls compared to people in Estonia, and people in the US get about 3 times as many spam calls as those in Germany. Those in India get about 3 times more than people in the US, and people in Brazil get about 3 times more spam calls than those in India.
So depending on where you live you may get 81x the amount of scam calls as people in a different region. At least based on quick and unreliable back-of-the-envelope math. Central and Eastern European countries may get 9x fewer spam calls per capita than the US.
It was a non-question, and my answer was still serious. Every topic has a few people jumping in to say "Wow I didn't realize the US sucked at X, we don't have that problem in Y country." Eventually someone else from Y shows up to say "Well, actually, I do, and I live here in Y."
Your observation about English vs non-English is not a bad guess. And with the highest average income in the world, it would make sense to see Americans be targeted more by spammers.
But still, it remains true that plenty of people in both Europe and the US get irritating amounts of spam calls/texts, but some people manage to escape it entirely.
Could you point to relevant research anyway? I'd be interested and maybe it's possible to "find" it somewhere.
This doesn't reflect my personal experience (anecdata I know) or those of any of the people I know.
I'll think I'll ask around because now I'm curious about the distribution. If a few people here are bombarded with spam calls it would average out the 1-2 a year me and my family/friends get on average on their mobile numbers.
I also asked GPT to quote some research for me that I fact-checked, and I looked up some news articles about spam calls in different regions. As I said, my estimates are unreliable.
It matched my personal experience which is that of someone who has lived in these smaller EU countries and also in English-speaking regions.
After looking into it a bit more, spam calls seem to be significantly less prevalent in many smaller EU countries that speak their own language when compared to the global average. Probably because it's harder to find scammers speaking the language, or it's less cost-effective to target those demographics.
A lot of reliable research is paywalled, but from what I was able to scrape together, it seems like people in Germany get about 3 times as many spam calls compared to people in Estonia, and people in the US get about 3 times as many spam calls as those in Germany. Those in India get about 3 times more than people in the US, and people in Brazil get about 3 times more spam calls than those in India.
So depending on where you live you may get 81x the amount of scam calls as people in a different region. At least based on quick and unreliable back-of-the-envelope math. Central and Eastern European countries may get 9x fewer spam calls per capita than the US.