The overwhelming number of complaints made about calls that allegedly violated the Federal Trade Commission’s Do Not Call rules were related to reducing debt during the 2017 fiscal year, which ended Sept. 30, 2017.
More than 860,000 complaints related to debt reduction were made to the FTC by consumers during the 2017 fiscal year, with 771,000 of those calls being made by robocalls. The next-most complained about category were vacation and timeshare rentals, with 300,000 complaints, followed by warranties and protection plans, with 285,000 complaints.
More than 4.5 million robocalls were complained about during the 12-month period, compared with 2.5 million live calls. The 7.1 million complaints were the most ever, topping the 5.3 million complaints made a year ago.
New Jersey had the most number of complaints per 100,000 residents, followed by Delaware, Florida, and New Hampshire.
The Northeast is the most active area of the country in terms of signing up for the FTC’s Do Not Call Registry. New Hampshire has the highest rate of registrations per 100,000 residents, followed by Connecticut, Massachusetts, Maine, and New Jersey. Alaska and Hawaii were at the bottom of the list.
There were 229 million phone numbers on the Do Not Call registry as of Sept. 30, 2017, according to the FTC, up from 226 million a year ago.
