How to Stop Robocalls and Report Them

The phone rings from a number sharing your own area code and prefix, and blocking each one changes nothing by the next afternoon. The FTC's pages explain why: the numbers are faked, and the registry most people reach for was built to stop a different kind of caller. Each step below does something narrow.

Register the number at donotcall.gov

The National Do Not Call Registry accepts a home or mobile number at no cost, and its registration page states that registrations do not expire. The FTC's National Do Not Call Registry FAQs page says it can take up to 31 days for sales calls to stop. That page also says the registry allows political calls, charitable calls, debt collection calls, purely informational calls, and surveys, and that being on the registry will not stop calls from scammers making illegal calls (as of September 2026).

Turn on the carrier and handset blocking

The FTC's How To Block Unwanted Calls page says to check your phone provider's website or call customer service to find out what call blocking or call labeling services it offers, noting that some are free while others might charge a fee. The same page says a call blocking app acts like a filter, using call data and reports from users and the FTC to predict which calls are illegal or likely scams, and that most cell phones have settings to block specific numbers plus features such as Do Not Disturb, where calls go straight to voicemail during hours you set.

Hang up rather than pressing a key

The FTC blocking page says that if you get an illegal robocall, hang up, do not call back, and do not press a number, which could lead to more robocalls. It also describes neighbor spoofing, where scammers call using a caller ID number with your area code, and spoofed names made to look like a government agency.

Send the two kinds of report to the right places

USAGov's page on phone and text scam complaints separates these. Scam and suspicious calls go to the FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov, which the FTC's How to Stop Unwanted Calls page also names for unwanted calls. Sales calls to a registered number go to the Do Not Call report form. The USAGov page also lists and links a separate federal communications regulator for robocall and robotext enforcement and spoofed caller ID.

Forward spam texts to 7726

The FTC's How To Recognize and Report Spam Text Messages page says to copy the message and forward it to 7726, which it notes helps your wireless provider spot and block similar messages in future. That page also says to use the junk or spam reporting option inside the messaging app, and to report the text to the FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov.

If the calls are about a debt. The FTC's Do Not Call FAQs page lists debt collection calls among those the registry allows, so registering will not affect them.

Sources. Do Not Call Registry, Registration page, Report form, Registry FAQs, Blocking unwanted calls, Stopping unwanted calls, Spam text messages, ReportFraud.ftc.gov, Phone and text scam complaints.