Once you’ve realized you've been targeted by a spam caller, do you know what you need to do to prevent it from happening a second time?
Learning how to report spam calls are just one of the highly recommended solutions designed to reduce the risk of continuous spam threats. Although reporting these scams cannot put an end to your phone privacy problem for good, they are helpful in ensuring the government is aware of the offender and in preventing others from becoming victims.
Before taking time out of your busy day to report a spam call, it’s important to identify if the call was in fact spam. It can be difficult to identify the true intentions of an unsolicited call, especially if the call catches you off guard. To help you unmask the motives behind the call you’ve received, the FTC has found these common denominators and phrases you should look out for when identifying a phone scam:
It’s also important to note that legal entities, government departments (such as the IRS), and businesses typically have other mechanisms of communication besides calling. For example, the IRS will always notify you of any outstanding issues or payments via mail, and will never call directly soliciting payment over the phone.
If you find yourself in this situation and are concerned about an outstanding debt, request a payment validation via mail. This will ensure you are not at risk for phone fraud.
If the suspicious call you’ve received fits the above description, file a complaint with the FCC. Reporting the call won’t stop the caller from attempting to scam you again, but it can help the FCC flag offenders and protect other consumers from becoming victims. Following the below steps will help you successfully report a spam call to the FCC and ensure these spammers do not reach your phone again.
To file your complaint online go to www.fcc.gov/consumer. This is the official FCC page to file an online complaint about phone, TV, radio, internet, emergency communication, and access for people with disabilities. For information on filing a complaint by mail or phone, click here.
Click on the "Consumer Complaint Center" button on the left-hand side of the screen.
Select File a Complaint: Phone to ensure you report abuse for the appropriate communication channel.
Complete the Consumer Complaint form. As you become more specific in your complaint, additional fields will be added to the form. Make sure to be as clear as possible, by providing the phone number, and date and time of the call, and if you had previously opted out of communication from this number, and if the caller had been advertising any products or services.
Once submitted, you will receive an email from the FCC immediately after filing your complaint, of which will provide your complaint ticket number and additional helpful consumer information.
The best way to ensure you are not a victim of phone fraud is to ensure you never pick up a spam call or allow them to ever reach your phone. However, this can be difficult as reporting spam calls won’t stop callers from contacting you. We highly recommend you install RoboKiller on your iPhone. R
oboKiller automatically blocks more than 100,000 spam calls from ringing, even if the calls come from spoofed caller IDs.