Guides
What to do after an unknown call, a robocall or a scam text. Every fact comes from an official page, listed at the end of each guide with the date it was read.
After a call
- Is this number a scam?The signs the FTC lists for a scam call, what official complaint data can and cannot prove about a number, and what to do if you already paid.
- One ring calls from abroadWhy a phone rings once from a number that looks American, which area codes the FCC warns about, and what calling back can cost.
- Caller ID spoofingHow callers fake a local or official number, what the law and STIR/SHAKEN do about it, and what to do when someone is spoofing your own number.
- No Caller ID and Unknown callsWhat No Caller ID, Unknown and Private mean on a US phone, how callers hide their number, and how to reject or silence these calls.
- Calls from toll-free numbersWhat toll-free numbers are, when each code started, who holds them, and how many FTC and FCC reports name 800, 833, 844, 855, 866, 877 and 888 numbers.
Common scam calls
- Social Security scam callsWhat the Social Security Administration says it will never do on the phone, the real number to call, and where to report a fake SSA call.
- IRS scam callsHow the IRS really contacts taxpayers, what it never does on the phone, and where to report an IRS impersonation call.
- Common phone scam scriptsThe scripts behind the most reported scam calls, what the real organization says it never does, and the one move that stops each of them.
Stop and report calls
- Scam textsThe signs of a scam text, how to forward it to 7726 (SPAM), what carriers must block, and how to report it to the FTC and FCC.
- Report a callWhich agency takes which report, the exact sites and numbers to use, what each agency does with your report, and what to have ready.
- The Do Not Call RegistryHow to register free at donotcall.gov, when sales calls should stop, which callers may still ring, and how to report a company that ignores it.
- Are robocalls illegal?When a prerecorded or AI-voice call is legal and when it is not, the consent rules for calls and texts to cell phones, and the calling hours.
- Block robocallsThe free blocking built into iPhone and Android, what AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile offer at no cost, and what blocking cannot stop.