The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) released the National Do Not Call Registry Data Book for Fiscal Year 2024. The Book shows a continued decline in consumer reports about unwanted calls for the third consecutive year, with complaint volume down by more than half since 2021. According to the FTC, it has implemented a multifaceted strategy to combat unwanted calls, including Operation Stop Scam Calls in 2023 which is touted as the largest crackdown on illegal telemarketing in the agency’s history.
The FTC’s data book, now in its 16th year, provides the latest fiscal year information on robocall complaints, types of calls reported by consumers, and a state-by-state analysis of the data. Complaints about unwanted calls related to medical and prescription issues topped the list, with over 170,000 reports, more than half of which were robocalls. The National Do Not Call (DNC) Registry saw over 4.2 million new registrations in the last fiscal year, bringing the total to over 253 million actively registered phone numbers. The overall number of complaints about unwanted calls decreased by more than 33,000 from FY 2023, with a significant drop in robocall complaints for the third consecutive year. However, complaints about debt-reduction calls increased by more than 85 percent from the previous year.
Reports about imposters were the second-most commonly reported topic, with over 158,000 complaints, followed by debt reduction, energy, solar, and utilities, and home improvement and cleaning. The FTC’s new Impersonation Rule targets government imposters and those misrepresenting affiliations with legitimate businesses. The FTC also provides a state-by-state breakdown of its data, with New Hampshire leading in active DNC registrations per capita. The top five states reporting the most DNC complaints per 100,000 people in FY 2024 were Delaware, Ohio, Arizona, Illinois, and North Carolina.
A copy of the Book as at this link: https://www.ftc.gov/system/files/ftc_gov/pdf/DNC-Data-Book-2024.pdf
Mitchell Roth
