Signing up for the National Do Not Call Registry is supposed to end most sales calls, yet phones keep ringing. The Federal Trade Commission’s latest figures explain the gap: the registry is a rule for legitimate sellers, and it was never built to stop criminals.
What the FTC’s latest numbers show
In a January 2026 press release announcing its biennial report to Congress, the FTC said it received more than 2.6 million Do Not Call complaints in fiscal year 2025, an increase from the year before. Robocalls, rather than live telemarketers, made up most of those complaints. The agency noted that robocall complaints rose slightly but remain well below their fiscal 2017 peak.
The registry itself keeps growing. As of the end of fiscal 2025 (September 30, 2025), the FTC reported about 258.5 million active numbers, with more than 4.7 million added during the year. The agency said the most commonly reported unwanted calls involved debt reduction schemes, imposters, and medical and prescription inquiries.
Those categories matter. Debt-relief pitches and imposter calls are often not lawful telemarketing at all, which helps explain why signing up does not silence them.
What does the Do Not Call Registry actually do?
The registry has existed since 2003, when Americans first gained the ability to opt out of most telemarketing calls by registering their numbers. According to the FTC, it holds only phone numbers: it does not store other personal information, and it does not record whether a number is a landline or a cell phone.
Registering does one thing: it tells companies that sell by phone that they are not supposed to call that number. Legitimate telemarketers must pay for access to the list and scrub their calling lists against it. A company that ignores the list can face enforcement. The FTC says that since 2003 it has filed 173 lawsuits against 570 companies and 449 individuals, collecting nearly $400 million from violators.
Enforcement works against companies that can be found. It does little against an operation that hides its identity, uses disposable numbers or calls from abroad.
Which calls are exempt from the registry?
The registry covers telemarketing, not every call. The FTC lists several exemptions:
| Type of call | Treatment |
|---|---|
| Political calls | Not covered by the registry |
| Charities and non-profits | Not covered, though for-profit telemarketers calling on a charity’s behalf are covered |
| Legitimate surveys | Not covered |
| Companies you recently did business with | May call for up to 18 months after your last transaction |
| Purely informational messages | Appointment reminders and shipping updates fall outside the prerecorded-message ban |
The 18-month window is the exemption that surprises people most. A company with an established business relationship can make live-agent calls even if your number is on the registry, unless you have asked that company specifically to stop. That request puts you on the company’s own do-not-call list, which it must honor.
Are robocalls illegal?
Most sales robocalls are, but the rule is narrower than many people assume. Under the FTC’s Telemarketing Sales Rule, prerecorded telemarketing calls generally require the recipient’s prior signed, written agreement to receive them from that specific seller. According to the FTC’s compliance guidance, the agreement must show the person’s willingness, the number to be called and a signature, and electronic signatures that satisfy federal law are allowed.
Several other points follow from the rule:
- A seller cannot make that agreement a condition of a purchase.
- A pre-existing business relationship does not permit prerecorded sales calls.
- Each prerecorded call must offer an automated way to opt out, which adds the number to the seller’s do-not-call list and then disconnects.
- A call counts as abandoned if you answer and no sales representative is connected within two seconds of the greeting. The rule’s safe harbor caps abandoned calls at 3% of live-answered calls per campaign.
The prohibition took effect on September 1, 2009, according to the FTC. The agency also says that AI-enabled scam calls remain covered by its protections, so a synthetic voice does not create a loophole for a seller that needs your permission.
Why do scam calls still get through?
Because the people running them are not following the rules in the first place. The registry relies on callers who respect it. A fraudster pretending to be a bank, a government agency or a tech-support desk is already breaking several laws, and a registry listing is not going to change that behavior.
The Telemarketing Sales Rule also requires telemarketers to transmit caller ID information, including the phone number and, where available, a name. Equipment that cannot transmit it is not an excuse. In practice, though, scam operations can display numbers that look local or familiar, so what appears on your screen is not proof of who is calling.
That is why the registry works best against the large, identifiable companies that make up the legitimate part of the market. It trims that traffic. It does not touch the rest. Our look at how fake security alerts fuel billions in imposter scams shows how the same pressure tactics move from phone calls to pop-up screens.
How should you treat an unexpected call?
The registry is one layer. The others are habits and tools.
- Register once, and keep the number current. If you change numbers, register the new one.
- Do not press buttons to be removed. A legitimate prerecorded sales call must include an automated opt-out, but if a call seems illegitimate, engaging confirms to the caller that your line is live.
- Do not act under pressure. Demands for immediate payment, gift cards, or remote access to your device are signs of fraud, whatever the caller ID says.
- Hang up and call back on an official number. If a call claims to be from your bank or a government agency, end it and use the number on your card, statement or the organization’s official site.
- Report suspected fraud. The FTC accepts reports through its fraud-reporting website, and its Do Not Call complaint data is what feeds reports like the one above.
- Ask a company directly to stop. For a business you have dealt with, an explicit request puts you on its own list.
The same discipline protects your accounts. If a caller does get a password or a code out of you, a phishing-resistant sign-in can limit the damage, which is part of why we explained what passkeys are and whether to use them.
What can the rules and the technology realistically deliver?
Robocall complaints are well below their fiscal 2017 peak, according to the FTC, but the agency’s summary also shows complaints rising again in fiscal 2025, and robocalls still dominate them.
Policy is still moving. The agency says fees that telemarketers pay to access the registry are set to increase in 2026, though it did not give the amounts. The FTC also notes that the Federal Communications Commission enforces the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, which regulates telemarketing too, and that many states have their own telemarketing laws. A call can therefore break more than one set of rules at once.
Technology can shift the odds but not remove the risk. Voice cloning and automated dialing make it cheap to place huge numbers of calls, a trend we touched on in our explainer on what AI agents can actually do today. Rules that hinge on caller identity depend on that identity being real.
Where this leaves the registry
The Do Not Call Registry is worth joining and worth understanding for what it is: a rule that legitimate companies mostly follow, covering sales calls but not political calls, charities or surveys, with a long exemption for firms you already deal with. It cannot stop a scammer, and the FTC’s complaint data shows why. Treat registration as the baseline, and treat any call that demands money, codes or quick decisions as suspect regardless of who the screen says is calling.
This article is general information, not legal or personal security advice. Rules, fees and exemptions can change, so check the FTC’s current guidance.
Sources: Federal Trade Commission
