Today, the Federal Trade Commission released National Do Not Call Registry Data Book for the Fiscal Year 2024, which shows that consumer reports about unwanted calls continue to drop for the third straight year, with complaint volume down by more than half since 2021.
The FTC has pursued a multifaceted strategy to crack down on unwanted calls. In 2023, the agency announced Operation Stop Scam Calls, the largest crackdown in illegal telemarketing in the agency’s history.
This year, the agency issued a rule banning impersonation of government or business, and expanded the Telemarketing Sales Rule (TSR) to protect businesses facing illegal telemarketing. The FTC is also confronting emerging threats such as voice cloning, by launching a Voice Cloning Challenge and clarifying the the TSR covers AI-enabled scam calls.
“Illegal calls remain a scourge, but the FTC’s strategy to pursue upstream players and equip the agency to confront emerging threats is showing clear signs of success,” said Sam Levine, Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection. “In the years to come, it will be critical we continue this progress by confronting not only telemarketers but those firms who knowingly profit from scam calls.”
The Verge reported complaints about unwanted telemarketing calls have dropped for the third straight year, the Federal Trade Commission announced yesterday.
Reports of such calls have fallen by over 50 percent versus 2021, according to the FTC — a decline that could be thanks in no small part to stepped-up government efforts to fight irritating telemarketing and phone scams.
There were about 33,000 fewer unwanted call complaints during the 2024 fiscal year versus the year prior, writes the FTC. The drop affected all sorts of unwanted calls, although the agency writes that reports about net reduction calls had jumped “more than 85 percent from last year.”
As for what the FTC has actually been doing, it points to its crackdowns on illegal telemarketing last year, and its rules that ban the impersonation of governments or businesses. The agency also cite its Telemarketing Sales Rule (TSR), which places a number of restrictions on telemarketers — like when they make their calls — and its clarification that the TSR applies on scam calls that use AI, too.
PCMag reported consumer reports about unwanted telemarketing calls are down by more than half since 2021, according to a report from the Federal Trade Commission.
This is the third year the FTC has recorded a drop in spam calls. Overall, there were roughly 33,000 fewer unwanted call complaints during the 2024 fiscal year compared to 2023.
The FTC also highlighted a February FCC that said calls made with AI-generated voices are “artificial,” and therefore illegal under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. (TCPA).
In my opinion, the FTC is doing a great job to protect consumers from fraudulent calls from disreputable people who desperately want to steal someone else’s money.