FTC Says Spam Calls Actually Down 50% in Recent Years

The fig of complaints astir unwanted telemarketing calls successful the U.S. has dropped a whopping 50% since 2021, according to the FTC’s yearly study connected spam calls released Friday. The national bureau launched Operation Stop Spam Calls successful 2023, 1 of galore efforts credited with helping chopped backmost connected the fig of annoying calls Americans get from telemarketers.

The astir communal ailment astir spam calls to the FTC implicit the past twelvemonth was regarding aesculapian and medicine issues, with imposters being the 2nd astir common, and reducing indebtedness the third. The different categories rounding retired the database see energy, solar, and utilities arsenic good arsenic location betterment and cleaning complaints.

Some of the spam complaints were regarding unrecorded callers, but the bulk were alleged robocalls. In fiscal twelvemonth 2024, which ended Sept. 30, the FTC received 1.1 cardinal complaints astir robocalls, down from 1.2 cardinal successful 2023, and implicit 3.4 cardinal successful 2021.

There are implicit 253 cardinal radical registered connected the Do Not Call database close now. In 2023 that fig was 249 million, 246 cardinal successful 2022, and 244 cardinal connected the database successful 2021. Americans tin enactment their fig connected the Do Not Call registry by visiting donotcall.gov oregon by calling the toll‐free fig 888‐382‐1222. Calling that fig should beryllium done from the telephone you privation to register.

The caller study includes immoderate absorbing data, including a ranking of the states with the highest percent of radical who’ve registered for the Do Not Call list. The states with the astir progressive registrations comparative to their colonisation see New Hampshire, Connecticut, and Massachusetts. The fewest registrations were successful Alaska, with Hawaii and Texas not acold behind.

The state-level information for radical who’ve registered for the Do Not Call database © FTC

The FTC’s study includes elaborate breakdowns for each authorities and tin beryllium viewed astatine the agency’s website. And determination has been existent advancement successful getting escaped of astatine slightest immoderate unwanted calls. But the folks astatine the FTC cognize they inactive person enactment to do.

“Illegal calls stay a scourge, but the FTC’s strategy to prosecute upstream players and equip the bureau to face emerging threats is showing wide signs of success,” said Sam Levine, Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, successful a connection published online. “In the years to come, it volition beryllium captious we proceed this advancement by confronting not lone telemarketers but those firms who knowingly nett from scam calls.”

That enactment “years to come,” surely sounds ominous aft Donald Trump won the statesmanlike predetermination connected Nov. 5. After all, the apt highest of the scam robocall epoch was the end of the 2010s, erstwhile Trump was president. And it’s improbable that anyone who whitethorn beryllium installed astatine the FTC by Trump volition beryllium arsenic assertive with user extortion than the existent caput of the bureau Lina Khan. In fact, fixed the names Trump has enactment guardant for important agencies, similar Pete Hegseth for Secretary of Defense and Matt Gaetz for Attorney General, it’s astir apt a harmless stake that Khan volition beryllium replaced by immoderate implicit clown who has nary qualifications speech from loyalty to Trump.

Get acceptable for a batch much robocalls successful the coming years, my friends.