How to Stop Telemarketing Calls: The Complete Guide

calendar May 18, 2026 · 3 min read · opt out telemarketing  ·
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The Call You Did Not Ask For

The FTC received 1.8 million Do Not Call complaints in fiscal year 2023. The actual volume of unwanted calls is far higher — most people hang up without filing a complaint. Robocalls peaked in 2019 at an estimated 58 billion calls in the U.S. alone, and while enforcement has driven that number down, billions of illegal calls still connect every year.

The National Do Not Call Registry (donotcall.gov) is the primary federal opt-out mechanism. Registration is permanent — the FTC eliminated the five-year expiration requirement in 2008. But the registry only covers commercial telemarketers. Political organizations, charities, survey companies, and companies with which you have an existing business relationship are exempt under 16 C.F.R. Part 310. That exemption gap is where most modern robocalls originate, because scammers and political callers operate outside FTC jurisdiction by design.

Understanding what the Do Not Call Registry does and does not cover prevents frustration when calls continue after registration. The registry is not a silver bullet; it is one layer of a multi-layer defense.

How to opt out: step by step

  1. Register with the National Do Not Call Registry — Go to donotcall.gov and register your mobile and landline numbers. Registration is free and permanent. Telemarketers have 31 days from your registration date to stop calling. You can also register by calling 1-888-382-1222 from the number you want to register.

  2. Enable your carrier's free call-blocking service — All four major U.S. carriers now offer built-in robocall blocking. AT&T: ActiveArmor (free in the AT&T Phone app). Verizon: Call Filter (free tier). T-Mobile: Scam Shield (free). These use STIR/SHAKEN call authentication data to flag or block likely spoofed numbers before your phone rings.

  3. Install a third-party call-blocking app — Apps like Nomorobo (free for VoIP landlines via FTC Robocall Challenge winner; $1.99/mo for mobile), Hiya, or YouMail maintain crowdsourced blacklists updated in real time. They intercept calls before the ring or send them to a separate junk voicemail folder.

  4. Report violations to the FTC — If a registered telemarketer calls after the 31-day window, file a complaint at reportfraud.ftc.gov. The FTC uses complaint data to identify serial violators and build enforcement cases. In 2023 alone, the FTC took action against operations responsible for billions of illegal calls.

  5. Use your phone's built-in silence-unknown-callers feature — iOS (Settings > Phone > Silence Unknown Callers) and Android (Phone app > Settings > Block numbers > Unknown) will send unidentified callers directly to voicemail. This is blunt — you will miss some legitimate calls — but effective for periods when volume is high.

  6. Opt out of individual company call lists directly — When a company you have a relationship with calls, tell the representative you want to be placed on their internal do-not-call list. Under FTC rules, they must honor that request for five years regardless of whether you are on the national registry.

What to expect

After registering with the Do Not Call Registry, allow 31 days before expecting results from compliant telemarketers. Robocallers operating illegally will not honor the registry at all — for those, carrier-level blocking and third-party apps are your primary defense.

Political calls and charity solicitations will continue unless you opt out with each organization individually. For political calls, the TCPA requires human-initiated calls to registered numbers, but auto-dialed calls to mobile phones for political purposes require prior consent — you can revoke that consent in writing.

References

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