FTC 2026 Robocall Data: What 2.6 Million DNC Complaints Tell Us

The Federal Trade Commission received over 2.6 million Do Not Call complaints in fiscal year 2025, according to the FY2025 National Do Not Call Registry Data Book published in December 2025. This figure covers DNC-specific complaints only — the broader FTC Consumer Sentinel Network recorded approximately 5.7 million total fraud reports across all categories in the same period. The DNC number is simultaneously encouraging — down roughly 48% from the 2021 peak — and alarming: total consumer fraud losses hit an estimated $15.9 billion in 2025, a 30% increase year-over-year. Here is a complete breakdown of what the data shows and what it means for anyone trying to protect themselves or an elderly parent from robocalls.

Key Statistics From the FTC's 2025–2026 Data

• 2.6 million+ Do Not Call complaints received in FY2025 (October 2024 – September 2025)
• $15.9 billion in total consumer fraud losses in 2025 — a 30% increase from 2024
• 258 million+ active registrations on the National Do Not Call Registry as of end of FY2025
• 48% decline in complaint volume since the FY2021 peak — attributed largely to FTC enforcement targeting VoIP infrastructure
• Imposter scams remain the #1 complaint category by dollar losses reported
• Robocalls (prerecorded message calls) account for the large majority of DNC violations, not live telemarketers

Breakdown by Scam Type

The FTC's Consumer Sentinel Network data categorizes complaints by the type of solicitation reported. The top categories for FY2025:

1. Debt reduction / financial services: Callers offering fake debt consolidation, student loan forgiveness, or credit score improvement schemes. This category consistently ranks first and typically targets people who have expressed financial distress in any publicly accessible data source.
2. Imposter scams (government, business, family): Calls impersonating the IRS, Social Security Administration, Medicare, or family members in distress. AI voice cloning has dramatically amplified the effectiveness of family impersonation scams in 2025–2026.
3. Medical and prescription schemes: Callers offering free medical equipment, Medicare supplemental coverage, or prescription drug discounts. These target seniors disproportionately and are frequently used to harvest Medicare ID numbers and Social Security data.
4. Energy, solar, and utilities: Calls claiming to offer government-subsidized solar panels, utility rate reductions, or energy audits. The "green energy" framing has increased uptake among environmentally conscious demographics.
5. Home improvement and cleaning: Unsolicited calls for roof repair, gutter cleaning, or HVAC services — often used as entry points for home-visit scams or contract fraud targeting homeowners.

Top States by Complaint Volume (FY2025)

The FTC measures complaints per 100,000 residents to provide population-adjusted rankings. The states with the highest complaint rates in FY2025:

1. Arizona — Consistently the highest per-capita complaint state, driven by a large retiree population and high telemarketer activity targeting Sun Belt demographics
2. Florida — Second highest in population-adjusted complaints; also the state with the highest absolute complaint volume given its size and senior population density
3. Nevada — High transient population and gaming-adjacent financial services solicitation contribute to elevated complaint rates
4. Tennessee — Rising complaint rates correlated with increased VoIP-based robocall operations identified in the region
5. Illinois — Large urban population and high density of reported debt-reduction and imposter scam calls

Note: The FTC publishes full state-by-state data through its Consumer Sentinel Network interactive portal, updated quarterly.

Year-Over-Year Trend: What the Decline Means

The 48% reduction in DNC complaints since FY2021 is real but misleading when taken in isolation. Three things explain the trend:

• Enforcement against infrastructure: The FTC has aggressively targeted the VoIP providers, dialers, and soundboard technology companies that power high-volume robocall operations. Shutting down infrastructure removes tens of millions of calls from the pipeline simultaneously — more efficient than pursuing individual callers.
• Reporting fatigue: Consumer research consistently shows that frequent robocall targets stop reporting after their first few complaints, concluding that reporting is ineffective. The actual incident rate is significantly higher than complaint volumes suggest.
• Scam sophistication: Skilled impersonation scams are less likely to be identified and reported as robocalls. A consumer who loses money to an AI voice cloning scam may not recognize it as a "robocall" and report it to DoNotCall.gov — it might be filed under a different fraud category or not reported at all.

The $15.9 billion fraud loss figure — rising even as complaint volumes fall — reflects this dynamic. Fewer calls, but more effective targeting and higher per-call fraud yield.

What the Data Means for Android Users

Three practical conclusions from the FTC's FY2025 data:

1. The Do Not Call Registry is not a spam call solution. Of the 2.6 million complaints filed in FY2025, virtually none came from people whose phone numbers were not already on the Registry. The Registry has 258 million registrations. The callers generating the complaints are not legitimate telemarketers checking the Registry — they are criminals for whom the Registry is irrelevant.

2. The highest-risk demographics need proactive blocking, not reactive labels. The FTC data is consistent across years: seniors and retirees face disproportionate financial losses per complaint because they are more likely to engage with calls rather than hang up, and more likely to be managing financial decisions (retirement accounts, Medicare, insurance) that scammers can exploit. Carrier-level spam labeling (the "Spam Risk" label on a ringing phone) does not protect a senior who is expecting a call from a new pharmacy or a Medicare administrator.

3. Privacy-invasive call blockers are not the answer to a privacy problem. The FTC's annual data on fraud losses makes clear that phone scammers are sophisticated actors with access to data broker databases, including databases populated by app companies that harvest contact lists. Giving your elderly parent's phone to a call blocker that uploads her entire address book to their servers in exchange for spam protection is a trade that may not serve her interests — or yours.

How Do I Report Robocalls to the FTC?

Even if you block calls automatically, reporting confirmed robocall numbers to the FTC contributes to aggregate enforcement data. File a complaint at ReportFraud.ftc.gov or DoNotCall.gov. Reports are shared with law enforcement agencies nationwide through the Consumer Sentinel Network. The full FY2025 DNC Data Book and prior years are published at ftc.gov/policy/reports. For app-level privacy data on the call blockers designed to address this problem, see our guide to choosing a private call blocker.