National Do Not Call Registry FAQs
consumer.ftc.gov
Advice to help you stop unwanted calls, and information about the National Do Not Call Registry.

Is it worth registering my number with the federal government (which presumably already has access to my information) to avoid spam calls? Does it work? Is there a downside?

  • finalarbiter@lemmy.dbzer0.com
    301·
    24 hours ago

    The registry only works for legitimate companies that are playing by the rules. That is to say that it does jack shit, at least for me

    I get dozens of spam calls and texts a day, mostly political in nature but with some good loan scams mixed in for variety.

    • plz1@lemmy.worldEnglish
      13·
      24 hours ago

      I think political calls are basically exempt from it, anyways.

      https://www.fcc.gov/consumers/guides/political-campaign-robocalls-and-robotexts-rules

      “Prior consent” is basically moot if you ever donate to a y campaign, ever, because you have to provide a real phone number. Or if you sign a petition your party is running, or somehow end up having that party get your number some other legitimate way. They have no way to prove (or you to disprove) your consent.

      I just treat them all as spam, and report/block accordingly.

      iOS 26 gave people the built-in call screening, which has been amazing for weeding out garbage calls, at least. Text messages are a different evil, but there are apps you can use to trash text messages that contain specific words, etc.

      • doodlebob@lemmy.world
        1·
        9 hours ago

        Political campaign-related autodialed or prerecorded voice calls, including autodialed live calls, autodialed texts, and prerecorded voice messages, are prohibited to cell phones, pagers, or other mobile devices without the called party’s prior express consent

        Most companies/political callers don’t do regular manual calling anymore… They pretty much all use some sort of system to automatically dial numbers

        • plz1@lemmy.worldEnglish
          1·
          9 hours ago

          I’m aware. Several issues there.

          1. They use / buy lists of people to robo-dial
          2. They don’t bother opt-out request handling on those lists reliably
          3. The opt-out process is per-campaign, not party-wide, so the process is an endless cycle for all party candidates, and even the same ones running in future elections. Because we have no way to our out at the party level, the data is basically always there.

          This is by no means am exhaustive list.

          • doodlebob@lemmy.world
            1·
            8 hours ago

            Yup, you’ve hit it on the head The worst is when they don’t handle consent withdrawal properly…

      • finalarbiter@lemmy.dbzer0.com
        1·
        11 hours ago

        Call screening is actually one of the reasons I’ve been thinking about going back to a Pixel, I had that on my Pixel 5 and Fold.

        Fortunately, the Google messages app (default for Android) does a half decent job of filtering spam texts for me. I go through the filter every couple days and just report them to my provider en masse.

      • Archer@lemmy.world
        3·
        17 hours ago

        What are those texting apps? I think the entire Democratic Party has sold my cellphone number to each other for fundraising and I want to not see any of it

        • plz1@lemmy.worldEnglish
          2·
          12 hours ago

          The DNC just gives it to any Dem campaign. RNC is the same. I use SMS Filter+.