The FTC says spam call complaints are way down since 2021

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Complaints astir unwanted telemarketing calls person dropped for the 3rd consecutive year, the Federal Trade Commission announced yesterday. Reports of specified calls person fallen by implicit 50 percent versus 2021, according to the FTC — a diminution that could beryllium acknowledgment successful nary tiny portion to stepped-up authorities efforts to combat irritating telemarketing and telephone scams.

There were astir 33,000 less unwanted telephone complaints during the 2024 fiscal twelvemonth versus the twelvemonth prior, writes the FTC. The driblet affected each sorts of unwanted calls, though the bureau writes that reports astir indebtedness simplification calls had jumped “more than 85 percent from past year.”

FTC Bureau of Consumer Protection Director Sam Levine said that portion amerciable calls are inactive “a scourge,” helium credited “the FTC’s strategy to prosecute upstream players and equip the bureau to face emerging threats” with the simplification successful complaints.

As for what the FTC has really been doing, it points to its crackdowns connected amerciable telemarketing past year, and its rules that ban the impersonation of governments oregon businesses. The bureau besides cites its Telemarketing Sales Rule (TSR), which places a fig of restrictions connected telemarketers — similar erstwhile they tin marque their calls — and its clarification that the TSR applies to scam calls that usage AI, too.

Last year, the FTC banned those extended conveyance warranty scams that galore of america are acquainted with. That prohibition followed the Federal Communication Commission’s proposal of a $300 cardinal fine implicit 1 specified campaign.

The FCC has played a portion successful different ways, too. The biggest US mobile carriers started complying with a caller anti-spoofing protocol aimed astatine verifying that the telephone fig shown connected consumers’ caller ID was really the 1 that called them. The FCC besides banned AI-generated robocalls, has cracked down connected robocallers / robotexters that don’t fto radical opt out, and requires compartment carriers to block likely-illegal robotexts.

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