Are robocalls illegal? What the FTC and FCC rules say

Sales robocalls need your written permission

Under the FTC's Telemarketing Sales Rule, a robocall selling something is illegal unless the seller got written permission directly from you. The company has to make clear it is asking to call you with robocalls, and cannot make you agree to get a product or service. Without that permission, the call is illegal, period, Registry or not.

Not every robocall is illegal: purely informational messages and debt collection calls are allowed. Robocalls offering to lower your debt are illegal, and the FTC says they are almost always scams.

Robocalls are the bulk of what people report. Of the 2,618,077 Do Not Call complaints the FTC received in fiscal 2025:

Calls and texts to your cell phone

The FCC defines robocalls as calls made with an autodialer or a prerecorded or artificial voice. Its rules require your prior written consent, on paper or electronically (a web form or a keypress counts), before a prerecorded telemarketing call to your home or mobile number, and your oral or written consent before any autodialed or prerecorded call or text to your mobile number. Emergency calls about danger to life, safety or property are exempt.

A business you already deal with still needs your written consent before a telemarketing robocall to your home.

AI-generated voices

On February 8, 2024 the FCC announced a unanimous ruling that calls made with AI-generated voices are “artificial” under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act. It took effect immediately and made voice cloning in robocall scams illegal. AI-voice calls are illegal unless you agreed to receive them or the caller is exempt.

What a legal robocall must include

• The caller's name, number and business name at the start of the message.
• For telemarketing, an automated opt-out (voice or keypress) offered within two seconds of that identification.
• If the message lands in your voicemail, a toll-free number you can call later to reach the opt-out and be put on the caller's do-not-call list.

Calling hours

Telemarketing calls to your home are banned before 8 a.m. and after 9 p.m., your local time, and telemarketers must honor a do-not-call request you make during a call immediately.

Opting out, and the change on November 25, 2026

Today you can revoke consent to robocalls and robotexts in any reasonable way, even if you agreed before, and the caller has up to ten business days to honor it.

A new FCC rule takes effect on November 25, 2026. From then on, a caller may name one of these as the only way to revoke consent, and need not act on requests made any other way:

• an automated voice or keypress opt-out during the call;
• replying with a standard word such as STOP, QUIT, END, REVOKE, OPT OUT, CANCEL or UNSUBSCRIBE;
• a website or phone number the caller designates.

Opting out of one marketing call or text then covers all marketing calls and texts from that caller.

Political robocalls

Campaign calls and texts are exempt from the Do Not Call Registry but must follow the TCPA's rules. Political robocalls to home landlines without your prior consent are limited to three within any 30 days.

Suing an illegal caller

The TCPA lets you sue for your actual loss or $500 per violation, whichever is greater, and a court can triple that if the violation was willful or knowing. State attorneys general can bring the same kind of case for their residents. Reporting the call is free: see how to report a call.