Most frequent 'Do Not Call' list complaint: imposter robocalls

Have you received a call from an imposter, maybe someone pretending to be with the Social Security Administration, IRS, or a tech support company, this year? If so, you’re not alone. Calls from imposters were the most-reported topic of unwanted calls to the FTC over the past year (FY2019).

You can see the FTC's annual report on Do Not Call complaints, with state-specific data. But here are some key takeaways:

  • The FTC got 5.4 million complaints about unwanted calls this year.
  • 71% of complaints reported the call was a robocall.
  • Calls from imposters are now the most-reported type of unwanted call, with 574,000 complaints.
  • After imposters, the next most-reported topics were calls about medical issues and prescriptions, as well as reducing debt.
  • The states with the most consumer complaints (per 100,000 population) were Colorado, Oregon, Arizona, New Jersey, and Nevada.
  • The Do Not Call Registry now has 239.5 million numbers on it. More than 4 million of those were added over the past year.

Find out more about what’s happening in your state at this link. But remember — you don’t need to wait for the FTC annual report to know what’s happening. The Do Not Call data is now available in an interactive format at ftc.gov/exploredata, and is updated quarterly.

The FTC continues to go after the companies and scammers behind these calls, so they are asking the public to keep reporting unwanted calls at donotcall.gov (or, if you’ve lost money to a scam call, at ftc.gov/complaint instead). The FTC will take the robocall and scam phone numbers you report and release them to the public each business day, which helps phone carriers and other partners that are working on call-blocking and call-labeling solutions. Consumer reporting also helps law enforcement identify the people behind illegal calls.

To find out more about how to get fewer calls and avoid scams, check out the articles, videos, and infographics at ftc.gov/calls.

Related Notice: FTC releases newest Do Not Call Registry Data Book

The Federal Trade Commission today issued the National Do Not Call Registry Data Book for Fiscal Year 2019. The FTC’s National Do Not Call (DNC) Registry lets consumers choose not to receive most legal telemarketing calls. The data show that the number of active registrations on the DNC Registry increased over the past year, while the total number of consumer complaints decreased for the second year in a row.

To make the Data Book as user-friendly as possible, it includes the following features:

  • The number of DNC complaints about robocalls versus live callers.
  • Information about the topics of calls reported to the FTC.
  • A state-by-state analysis of DNC complaints.
  • The underlying data in the report is publicly available at this link.

Consumers can sign up for the DNC Registry for free at: donotcall.gov.

See interactive graphic at this link.

Information provided by Federal Trade Commission


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