How to Report Spam Calls and Texts in the US
A practical walkthrough of reporting robocalls, scam texts, and telemarketers to the FTC, FCC, your carrier, and 7726 — and when reporting actually makes a difference.
Most people hang up on a spam call or delete a scam text and move on with their day. That instinct is understandable, but reports are actually how regulators and carriers find and shut down illegal operations. The Federal Trade Commission and Federal Communications Commission both rely on complaint data to identify patterns, prioritize enforcement, and build cases against robocallers and text scammers. Reporting takes less than five minutes, and doing it consistently makes you part of a much larger signal network.
Where to report unwanted calls and texts
There are two main federal channels, and they handle slightly different problems:
- The FTC's ReportFraud site (reportfraud.ftc.gov) is the right place for scam calls and texts — imposters, phishing links, fake prizes, anything fraudulent. Your report goes into the FTC's Consumer Sentinel database, which thousands of law enforcement agencies across the country use to build cases.
- The FCC's Consumer Complaint Center is focused on the communications side: unwanted calls, spoofed caller ID, robocall rule violations, and telephone service issues generally. If a caller violated telemarketing or robocall rules, the FCC is the regulator that enforces them.
- Your state attorney general's office also accepts consumer complaints, and state AGs often act faster on scams hitting their residents than federal agencies can.
You do not need to figure out which agency has jurisdiction. Filing with the FTC and your state AG covers most cases; adding an FCC complaint makes sense when spoofing or robocall rule violations are involved.
Forwarding to 7726
One of the simplest and most effective things you can do is forward spam texts to your carrier by sending them to 7726 (which spells SPAM on the keypad). This works on the major US carriers — Verizon, T-Mobile, and AT&T all support it — and the carrier uses those reports to identify and block offending numbers at the network level.
The process is slightly different depending on what you received:
- For spam texts: forward the message itself to 7726. Your carrier may reply asking for the sender's number or the content of the message.
- For spam calls: dial 7726 and some carriers will prompt you to enter or confirm the calling number; others simply log the report from the call record.
Forwarding to 7726 costs nothing, takes seconds, and unlike the FTC complaint process, it triggers automated blocking infrastructure fairly quickly. It is the single highest-value reporting habit for texts.
Using your carrier's reporting tools
Beyond 7726, all the major carriers offer dedicated reporting and labeling channels. T-Mobile has its Scam Shield ecosystem with a reporting option built in, Verizon offers a "report a spam number" flow through its website and the Caller Name ID features, and AT&T ActiveArmor includes suspicious number reporting. You can usually find these by searching your carrier's name plus "report spam number."
These tools matter because carriers sit in the best position to act. When enough people report a number, carriers can label it, block it outright, or hand the data to investigators. This is also the mechanism behind the "Suspected spam" and "Scam likely" labels you see on incoming calls.
When reports actually matter
It is fair to be a little skeptical — a single report against a number that called you once may not change anything on its own. Reports work through volume and pattern. What genuinely moves the needle:
- Numbers get blocked at scale. Carriers and call-labeling services aggregate reports and block or flag numbers once a pattern emerges.
- Enforcement cases get built. The FTC has brought dozens of actions against robocall operations using Consumer Sentinel data as evidence, and the FCC uses complaint patterns to target spoofing enforcement.
- Scam campaigns get spotted early. A wave of reports about a new fake-package-delivery text can lead to public warnings within days, protecting people who have not received it yet.
What reporting will not do is get your money back or stop a determined scammer from calling you personally. Reporting is infrastructure, not a personal remedy.
Report, then protect yourself
Filing a report works best alongside basic defenses. Registering with the National Do Not Call Registry at donotcall.gov makes legitimate telemarketing to you illegal, which means calls that come through afterward are far more likely to be scams — and reporting them is more actionable. Letting unknown calls go to voicemail keeps you out of scam scripts entirely. And a call-blocking app like NoCall can filter the bulk of robocalls and phishing texts automatically, so you are reporting the stragglers rather than fighting the flood by hand.
The bottom line
Reporting spam is a five-minute habit with real downstream effects. Send texts to 7726, file scams with the FTC at reportfraud.ftc.gov, add an FCC complaint when spoofing is involved, and loop in your state attorney general for anything targeting your area. Individually it feels symbolic; in aggregate it is the raw material that gets numbers blocked and operations shut down.
Sources and review
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Numbering, carrier tools, and reporting procedures can change. Verify sensitive steps with the linked primary authority.
Article details
Editorial content reviewed by NoCall with practical context for spotting suspicious calls and messages.
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