Scam Calls from Area Code 510

Dropped calls and silent hang-ups define scam activity out of area code 510, which covers the East Bay and Oakland corridor in California. Of 1,759 total complaints logged against 709 numbers between February and June 2026, 460 fall into the dropped-call category alone — more than the next four categories combined. Five of the eight highest-complaint numbers are silent-call offenders: 510-282-0739 leads the entire code with 36 complaints, followed by 510-390-7260 at 13, 510-257-2527 and 510-890-4412 each at 11, and 510-369-2291 at 10. This pattern is consistent with auto-dialer sweeps that ping numbers to confirm active lines without delivering any message.

Impersonation calls are the second most active threat, drawing 158 complaints across the code. The standout number here is 510-454-1000, which has generated 14 complaints in this category — the highest single-number count for any content-bearing scam in the code. Reported locations include Oakland, Hayward, Castro Valley, and Piedmont, suggesting the call traffic is tightly concentrated within the 510 geographic footprint rather than spread across the state.

Debt-reduction pitches account for 137 complaints, placing them close behind impersonation in volume. Medical and prescription solicitations add another 77 complaints, with 510-752-1190 the most-reported number in that bucket at 10 complaints. Energy and solar calls round out the named categories at 32 complaints. Together these content-bearing categories represent a layered solicitation environment beneath the dominant silent-call surface.

510-491-9945 carries 11 complaints with no assigned category in the data, making it one of the more opaque numbers in the top tier by complaint count. FCC records show 12 filings against the code, with live-agent calls accounting for 99 of the delivery-mode tallies versus 15 prerecorded — indicating that a meaningful share of the non-silent traffic involves real callers rather than automated messages, which raises the potential for adaptive social engineering.

At rank 92 out of 358 area codes overall and 10th among its 39 California-region peers, 510 sits in mid-tier complaint volume, but the density of silent calls from a small cluster of numbers suggests coordinated dialer infrastructure rather than diffuse individual actors. If that infrastructure shifts from line-verification to active solicitation, the impersonation and debt-reduction complaint counts could rise sharply given how many confirmed active lines the dropped-call sweeps have likely already identified.