Robocalling Trends

All experience and objective data over the past eight years has shown that every successful effort to reduce robocalling has been the result of an enforcement action or fear of an enforcement action.

• In 2016, IRS impersonation calls declined 50% after a single investigation by local police in India. Further information can be viewed HERE.
• In 2017, robocalls declined almost 85% after a single lawsuit against one company that used neighbor spoofing to deliver calls about vacation package offers. Further information can be viewed HERE.
• In 2018, Canadian Revenue Agency impersonation calls declined 77% after a series of raids by Indian police. Further information can be viewed HERE.
• In 2019, health and health insurance related robocalls declined 60% after a single lawsuit against a Canadian VoIP provider. Further information can be viewed HERE.
• Between 2021 and 2022, car warranty related robocalls declined 95% after enforcement actions by the FCC and FTC. Further information can be viewed HERE.

The reason why such a limited number of enforcement actions has had such a dramatic impact on reducing robocalls is that the large majority of illegal robocalls are generated by a relatively small number of criminal groups.

Since July 2021, the FCC has required all voice service providers to register with the Robocall Mitigation Database (RMD). Traceback is conducted through e-mail. When a phone company attempts to trace an illegal call, each phone company in the chain of providers between a call’s point of origination and termination is contacted. This mean that, many times, the criminal sending an illegal call is aware the call is being traced.

Even though robocall mitigation plans submitted through the RMD are frequently pro forma, and there is no verification they are being implemented, RMD registration, in and of itself, means all voice service providers allowed to connect to US phone companies are publicly identified. The combination of tracebacks and the RMD registration requirement has created an environment where criminals’ perceived risk of discovery has reduced robocalls 58%.

Since most tracebacks, however, do not result in an enforcement action, this has not stopped overseas criminals from defrauding Americans. This has caused them to shift from relying on large volumes of outbound phone calls to distributing call back phone numbers through e-mail messages and computer pop-ups (see FVRO: How to Stop Tech Support Fraud). As a result, while robocalling complaints to the FTC have declined 58% (Q2 2021 over Q3 2024), the dollar loss reported to the FTC from scams initiated by phone call have increased 32% during the same period.