If it feels like the spam calls never stop, you are not imagining it. In July 2026, a bipartisan coalition of 49 U.S. attorneys general formally asked the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) to tighten the rules on how scammers get hold of legitimate phone numbers. Americans received nearly 30 billion scam robocalls and text messages last year, according to the coalition.
It is worth being precise about what that filing is: it asks the FCC to act. It did not itself change any rule, and nothing about your phone service changed this month.
To understand why you get so many spam calls — and what actually reduces them — it helps to separate two very different questions. First: how do robocallers get the numbers they call from? Second: how did your number end up getting called in the first place? They have different answers, and only some of them are in your control.
Why do I get so many robocalls?
The Federal Trade Commission's answer is blunt: scammers. It is cheap and easy for them to make robocalls over the internet from anywhere in the world. That economics problem is the root of it — the cost of dialing you is close to zero, so there is no natural limit on how often it happens.
A robocall trying to sell you something is almost always illegal unless the company got written permission directly from you. So if you are getting sales robocalls you never agreed to, the odds are the calls are already unlawful — which is precisely why the callers behind them work so hard to stay untraceable.
How robocallers get the numbers they call from
For years, the main trick was "spoofing" — faking the caller ID so a call looked like it came from your bank, a government office, or a local number. After the FCC and state attorneys general cracked down on illegal spoofing, the attorneys general say scammers adapted and now often buy real, legitimate phone numbers in bulk to place robocalls, because a genuine assigned number is harder for spam filters to flag.
To be clear, spoofing has not disappeared. The FTC still warns that caller ID is easy to fake, so a call showing a local number or a familiar company name cannot be trusted on its own. Both tactics are in use.
The one regulators are focused on right now is "number cycling." Instead of blasting millions of calls from one line — which spam-detection tools would quickly block — a scammer rotates through huge quantities of numbers, often using each one only once or twice. According to the coalition of attorneys general, in one North Carolina case scammers made more than 17.3 million calls in a single day through one phone company, but generally never used the same number more than twice.
That is why blocking one spam number rarely helps: the next call simply comes from a fresh one. The attorneys general are asking the FCC to require companies that buy and resell phone numbers to meet stronger certification rules, report where numbers go, stop selling numbers to entities not tied to a real calling or texting service, and prohibit number cycling outright. If those rules are adopted, they would make it harder — over time — for scammers to keep a bottomless supply of fresh numbers.
How your own number ends up on calling lists
The regulatory fight is about the scammers' numbers. Your number can end up in their hands through several routes:
- Data breaches. When an organization suffers a breach, the exposed records may include phone numbers, which can later circulate or be resold.
- Data sharing and lead generation. Depending on the form, its privacy policy, and what you consented to, a business may share your number with affiliates, marketing partners, data brokers, or lead generators — and those records can spread further.
- Public exposure. Numbers posted on marketplace listings, public social profiles, résumés, or business pages can be scraped automatically.
- Automated number generation. Some calling systems simply dial generated numbers or blocks of possible numbers. This matters: receiving an unwanted call does not prove your number was leaked or sold.
Once your primary number has spread across multiple lists, there is no single process that removes it from every data broker, breach dataset, and lead list. You can opt out of individual people-search and data-broker sites, but that will not erase every copy. Limiting future disclosure therefore matters alongside call blocking.
How to stop robocalls: what actually works today
These steps can screen or reduce unwanted calls and help enforcement, but none of them guarantees that every robocall stops.
- Use your phone's built-in call controls. On current iPhones, go to Settings → Apps → Phone → Screen Unknown Callers, and choose Silence (calls from unsaved numbers are silenced and sent to voicemail) or Ask Reason for Calling (the caller is asked why they're calling before your phone rings). The same screen offers Call Filtering and a carrier-based Spam filter. Note this also silences unsaved numbers you may want — a school or a delivery driver — so add important numbers to Contacts first.
- On Android, in Phone by Google, caller ID & spam protection is on by default (Phone → More → Settings → Caller ID & spam). You can also tap a call and choose Block or Report spam. Menus differ on Samsung and other Android phones, and devices with automatic Call Screen handle spam through those settings instead.
- Use your carrier's tools. Major U.S. carriers offer spam-labeling and blocking options; the FTC suggests checking what your carrier provides and reviewing call-blocking apps.
- Hang up — and do not press buttons. If you answer and hear a recorded sales pitch, hang up. The FTC warns that pressing numbers to reach an operator or to "remove you from the list" will probably only lead to more robocalls.
- Register on the National Do Not Call Registry at donotcall.gov. Be realistic about what it does: it tells law-abiding telemarketers not to call you. It will not stop scammers making illegal calls — but it can reduce legitimate sales calls and make the remaining scam calls easier to spot.
- Report illegal robocalls to the FTC at DoNotCall.gov and to the FCC. The FTC publishes reported numbers each business day to help call-blocking providers and law enforcement identify patterns. Reports don't resolve your individual complaint, but they are what enforcement actions — like this month's push — are built on.
Keeping your primary number out of the pipeline
Blocking and reporting address calls that already found you. A separate, longer-term step is to reduce how often you disclose your primary number in places where it may be shared, scraped, or exposed. A second number can help with that separation — it is not a robocall blocker.
The idea is simple: keep your primary number for trusted people and long-term accounts — family, your doctor, your bank. Where a service accepts app-based numbers, use a separate number for lower-trust contacts: public marketplace and classifieds listings, one-time signups, free trials, contests, and delivery or rideshare handoffs. If that number is later scraped, shared, or exposed in a breach, calls arising from that exposure go to the separate line rather than the one your family and bank use. Neither line is guaranteed to stay spam-free, but you can screen, mute, or stop using a spare number without changing the number everyone important already has.
An app like Text Call provides an app-based second phone number for calls and texts over Wi-Fi or mobile data, without a second SIM — so you can compartmentalize where your number goes.
A few honest caveats. A second number is not a robocall blocker and cannot affect calls already reaching your primary line — use the phone and carrier controls above for those. For security-critical accounts, prefer an authenticator app or security key where it is supported. If a service requires SMS, use a stable number you control long-term; some services do not accept app-based or VoIP numbers at all.
The bottom line
You get so many spam calls because placing them is cheap, caller ID can still be faked, and scammers can acquire and cycle legitimate numbers faster than filters flag them — while your number circulates through breaches, public sources, data sharing, and automated dialing. The FCC is now considering tighter rules on the number supply; the attorneys general's filing itself changed nothing yet. On your side, the move is a two-part defense: use phone and carrier controls for the calls reaching you today, and reduce how often your primary number gets disclosed where a separate number would do the job.
Sources
- Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General — AG Sunday and 48 attorneys general push FCC to cut scammers' access to legitimate phone numbers (July 9, 2026)
- The News-Star — Louisiana AG joins coalition urging tighter rules on scammer access to real phone numbers (July 13, 2026)
- Federal Trade Commission — Robocalls (consumer guidance)
- Federal Communications Commission — Stop Unwanted Robocalls and Texts
- Apple Support — Manage unknown callers on iPhone
- Google — Use caller ID & spam protection
This article is general information, not legal advice. Text Call is not affiliated with the FCC, the FTC, or any state attorney general's office.