How to stop spam calls

Americans absorbed about 4.3 billion robocalls in June alone — roughly 13 per person — so no single switch fixes this. What works is a stack: the registry for legal telemarketers, your carrier's free tool for network-level scam blocking, and your phone's built-in screening for everything that leaks through. All three layers are free. Here they are in installation order, verified against FTC, FCC, carrier, and Apple/Google pages on the date above.

Layer 1: The Do Not Call Registry (2 minutes, once, forever)

Register at DoNotCall.gov or call 1-888-382-1222 from the phone you're registering. It's free, cell phones are eligible, online signups need the email confirmation link clicked within 72 hours, and — contrary to a persistent myth — registration never expires. Sales calls must stop within 31 days.

Know what you bought: the registry is a suppression list that lawful telemarketers must consult, with fines running over $50,000 per violating call. It does not block anything, and it does not restrain scammers, political calls, charities, surveys, debt collectors, or companies you recently did business with. Its job is to make every subsequent sales call either legal-and-permitted or evidence — report violations at DoNotCall.gov (or ReportFraud.ftc.gov if money was involved), including the caller-ID number even if it's obviously spoofed.

Layer 2: Your carrier's free tool (the one that blocks before the ring)

Since the STIR/SHAKEN caller-authentication mandate, the big carriers verify call signatures at the network — a vantage point no app on your phone can match. Each gives the important part away free:

Carrier	Free (do this)	Paid tier (usually skippable)
AT&T	ActiveArmor app — fraud & spam-call blocking, breach alerts	Advanced, $7/mo — VPN, identity monitoring (note: older guides still say $3.99)
Verizon	Call Filter — spam detection, filtering, block log	Plus, $3.99/mo/line — caller ID, category blocking
T-Mobile	Scam Shield — Scam ID + Scam Block, free caller ID; now lives in the T-Life app	Premium, $4/mo/line — category-to-voicemail, reverse lookup

Enable the free tier today; per FCC guidance and independent testing, that alone is adequate first-line protection for most people. Considering a third-party app on top? Read our honest blocker comparison first — it starts with the reasons not to.

Layer 3: Your phone's own screening

iPhone: the setting formerly known as Silence Unknown Callers is now Screen Unknown Callers (Settings → Apps → Phone). "Ask Reason for Calling" makes unknown callers state their business to an on-device assistant before your phone rings; "Silence" routes them to voicemail, where Live Voicemail (iOS 17+) transcribes in real time so you can grab legitimate calls mid-message. A separate Call Filtering section silences carrier-flagged spam. Screening stands down for 24 hours after you call 911.

Pixel / Android: Call Screen (Phone app → Settings → Spam and Call Screen) has Google Assistant answer unknown numbers, ask who's calling and why, and show you the live transcript; recognized spam gets auto-declined without your phone making a sound. US Pixels can run it automatically at Basic/Medium/Maximum protection.

Two things worth knowing in 2026

• AI-voice robocalls are flatly illegal. The FCC ruled in February 2024 that AI-generated voices are "artificial" under the TCPA — no consent, no call. Report them at consumercomplaints.fcc.gov; the FCC uses complaints to target enforcement.
• Don't count on the "one-to-one consent" rule you may have read about. It was struck down in January 2025 before ever taking effect, and the agency formally deleted it in late 2025. Lead-generator call farms remain governed by the older, looser consent standard — one more reason the layers above matter.

And the layer nobody mentions: supply

Every layer above filters delivery. Your number keeps getting dialed because it keeps getting sold — compiled by data brokers, confirmed by every interaction, and resold down-market. Never press a digit to "opt out" of a robocall and never call back; both mark the number live. Then work the supply side: how your number ends up on the lists, and how to get it off them.