Telemarketers will soon have their number published by the FCC

Most people never bother reporting robocallers and telemarketers to the FCC, although there are still hundreds of people that do this everyday, but now there’s a good reason to do so. In order to start cracking down on the annoying advertisers, the FCC is going to start publishing their numbers publicly, which will make it much easier for phone companies to block them using automated systems. 

Every day, federal regulators get hundreds of consumer complaints about unwanted robocalls and telemarketing calls. Now, to better crack down on these advertisers, the Federal Communications Commission says it’s going to publish the details of those complaints. The data will be used by phone companies to develop automated blocking services that can actively identify telemarketers and prevent them from ever reaching you in the first place. And it’s fairly granular: The first data dump from the agency includes information such as the phone number that originated the call, and the state in which it took place, as well as the kind of message the recipient got. Over time, these self-reported call records should help carriers pinpoint the source of annoying (and illegal) callers. Which means that if you get an unwanted junk call, you should definitely think about reporting it. Because now you have concrete proof that your complaint is being heard.