You’re Now Getting Far Fewer Annoying Robocalls

Complaints about robocalls and unwanted live telemarketing messages have plunged to a 13-year low, according to a new government report.

The Federal Trade Commission's National Do Not Call Registry Data Book, released Friday, said the number of unsolicited call complaints fell to 2.1 million over 12 months through Sept. 30, a 13-year low. The last time complaints were below 2 million was in 2010.

More than half of this year's complaints, or 1.2 million, concerned robocalls. That's 37% below last year's 1.8 million grievances.

The most frequently reported annoyance concerned deceptive calls from imposters pretending to be representatives for government agencies or businesses, with about 176,000 consumers flagging the unwanted outreaches to the FTC. The number of consumer complaints about random calls regarding medical issues and debt reduction was 142,000 and 82,000, respectively.

During the last fiscal year ended in September, more than 2.6 million individuals joined the national Do Not Call Registry, nudging up the total number of actively registered phone numbers to more than 249 million from just under 247 million.

In July, the FTC and more than 100 federal and state law enforcement agencies launched the largest “Operation Stop Scam Calls,” the largest crackdown on illegal telemarketing calls in U.S. history.

The Federal Communications Commission "is committed to using every tool at its disposal to crack down on illegal robocalls and protect the U.S. communications network,” Loyaan Egal, chief of the FCC's enforcement bureau, said in a press release accompanying the sister agency's report. “We, alongside our partners, will not let up in tracking, prosecuting, and penalizing the bad actors in this space and protecting consumers.”

As part of the efforts, the FTC said it has blocked active robocall scams and issued record-breaking fines.