What Is the Do Not Call Registry?

The National Do Not Call Registry is a list of phone numbers maintained by the United States government that telemarketers are legally required to check before making sales calls. Adding your number tells legitimate sales callers to leave you alone, and they face penalties if they call anyway.

The registry is run by the Federal Trade Commission. Registration costs nothing, and no legitimate service charges to place a number on it or to keep it there.

How do I add my phone number to the Do Not Call Registry?

There are two official routes, and both are free.

1. Online. Go to the registry's official government website, enter the phone numbers you want registered along with an email address, and submit.
2. Open the confirmation email that arrives and follow the link inside it. The registration is not complete until you do this. This is the step people skip.
3. By phone. Call the registry's official registration line from the phone you want registered. Calling from the number itself is what confirms it.

Both landline and mobile numbers can be registered. Get the official address and registration line from the Federal Trade Commission's own materials rather than from a search result, because lookalike sites collect personal information from people trying to register.

How do I check whether my number is already registered?

The registry's official website has a verification option: you enter the number and an email address, and the result is sent to you. There is no reason to re-register a number that is already on the list, and re-registering does not make it work better or faster.

If you cannot remember whether you ever registered, verifying takes less effort than registering again and gives you a real answer.

How long does the Do Not Call Registry take to work?

Registration is recorded quickly, but sellers are given a window to update their own calling lists before they are considered in violation. Expect a period of weeks rather than an immediate stop.

During that window, calls from legitimate telemarketers are not yet violations. After it passes, a sales call to your registered number generally is one, and that is when reporting it becomes worthwhile.

Note the date you registered. It is the reference point for deciding whether a later call broke the rules.

Which calls does the Do Not Call Registry not stop?

This is the part that surprises people. The registry covers sales calls from legitimate businesses, which is a narrower category than unwanted calls in general.

• Scam and fraud calls. Criminals do not consult the registry. If you are getting calls claiming to be from a government agency, a bank, or a delivery company, the registry was never going to stop them.
• Political calls and calls from charities seeking donations.
• Survey and research calls that are not selling anything.
• Debt collection calls, which are governed by different rules.
• Calls from companies you already do business with, within limits set by the rules.
• Calls you agreed to receive, sometimes through a consent box on a form you filled in without noticing.

If your unwanted calls are recorded messages about vehicle warranties, prizes, or urgent account problems, they are almost certainly in the first category, and blocking plus reporting will do more than registering.

I am registered and still getting calls. What do I do?

1. Do not answer, and do not press any key the recording offers, including one that promises to remove you. Responding confirms the number reaches a real person.
2. Note the date, the time, and the number that appeared, along with what the call claimed to be about.
3. File a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission using their official complaint process.
4. Block the number on your phone.
5. Turn on your mobile carrier's spam filtering if your plan includes it. Check your carrier account or their support pages at the company’s official website.

Complaints matter more in aggregate than individually. Regulators use patterns across many reports to identify the operations behind campaigns, so a single report may not stop your calls but does contribute to a case.

Does registration expire or cost anything?

Registration does not expire. A number stays on the list until it is disconnected, reassigned to someone else, or you remove it yourself.

Registration is free through the official government routes. Anyone asking for payment to register your number, to renew it, or to keep it active is running a scam, and the request itself is the giveaway.

One situation does require action: if you get a new phone number, register that number too. The registry follows numbers, not people.

What else can I do besides registering?

The registry is one layer. Combine it with the others for a real reduction in unwanted calls.

• Carrier spam filtering. Most mobile carriers can label or block suspected nuisance calls before your phone rings.
• Silencing unknown callers on your phone, so numbers not in your contacts go straight to voicemail. Check voicemail regularly if you do this.
• Being careful with your number on forms, contests, and sign-up pages, where consent to be called is often buried.
• Blocking specific repeat numbers in your phone's block list.

Together these handle more than the registry alone, because they work on the callers who ignore the rules as well as the ones who follow them.