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A couple months ago, we told you the good news that people had been reporting getting fewer robocalls, and we told you about how some of the FTC’s work might have played a part in that. We have more good news — the number of reported robocalls for April and May were even lower. Maybe you’ve noticed.

The FTC’s latest Do Not Call Registry data shows robocall complaints were down 68% in April 2020 compared to April 2019 and down 60% in May 2020 compared to May 2019. The numbers continued a downward year-over-year trend that started in May 2019. Here are two other interesting points:

  • April’s and May’s number of reported robocalls are the lowest we’ve seen in years — lower than every month since August 2011 (excluding months when donotcall.gov was down due to government shutdowns).

  • Robocalls weren’t replaced with live calls — the number of illegal calls from live callers is down, too.

This comes after the FTC and FCC sent more warning letters in April and in May to companies providing VoIP services that apparently routed or transmitted illegal Coronavirus scam robocalls.

These are just the latest actions the FTC has taken to stop illegal robocalls, and there will be more. But it’s good to know the actions we take make a difference. The FTC will continue its work with its state and federal law enforcement partners, as well as industry, to reduce unwanted calls. We know the calls have not stopped. But we will continue to do all we can to protect you from abusive and fraudulent calls.

Want to know more about what people are reporting to the FTC? Go to ftc.gov/exploredata.

If you get a robocall, hang up and report it to the FTC at donotcall.gov. Then go to ftc.gov/calls to learn more about what else you can do to stop them.

infographic explaining that many of the robocalls you are getting are from scammers, and to get fewer robocalls you should hang up and use call blocking.

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Unwanted Calls, Emails, and Texts
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76 Comments

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The purpose of this blog and its comments section is to inform readers about Federal Trade Commission activity, and share information to help them avoid, report, and recover from fraud, scams, and bad business practices. Your thoughts, ideas, and concerns are welcome, and we encourage comments. But keep in mind, this is a moderated blog. We review all comments before they are posted, and we won’t post comments that don’t comply with our commenting policy. We expect commenters to treat each other and the blog writers with respect.

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