Breach / exposure. Updated 2026-09-13. About 6 minutes to read.
Register on your country's list to cut legitimate telemarketing, then rely on carrier filtering and unknown caller screening for the scam calls a registry cannot touch.
Registering on a do not call list is free, takes two minutes, and works exactly as far as the law reaches. It removes your number from the calling lists of businesses that follow the rules. It does nothing to a criminal running a spoofed call centre offshore, because that person was never going to check a compliance list.
Both halves of that matter. Register, because it genuinely cuts legitimate telemarketing. Then use the tools that work on fraud calls: carrier filtering, your phone's own settings, and cutting off the sources that sold your number in the first place.
Below are the registration steps for the United States, Australia, the United Kingdom and Canada, plus the part most articles skip: what to do when the calls keep coming.
US registration never expires. Any email or call saying your do not call registration is about to lapse is a scam impersonating the FTC. Do not click it and do not pay anyone to register you.
The registry covers sales calls to consumers. Several categories fall outside it, which is why the phone keeps ringing even when the system is working correctly.
Each registry works the same basic way: it is a suppression list that legitimate callers must check, not a network block.
A fraud operation spoofs caller ID, changes numbers constantly, and often sits outside the regulator's reach. A suppression list is irrelevant to that business. What works is technology that scores calls before your phone rings, plus the settings on your handset.
Caller ID authentication, known in the US as STIR/SHAKEN, lets carriers flag calls whose origin cannot be verified. It reduces spoofing but does not eliminate it, especially for calls entering from overseas networks.
Registries treat the symptom. Your number is on calling lists because it was sold, leaked or volunteered, usually all three. People search sites publish it next to your name and address. Breach dumps circulate it. Web forms and competition entries hand it over with consent buried in the terms.
Opt out of the major people search sites, check whether your number appears in known breaches, and stop giving your real number to businesses that only need a way to reach you about an order. An email address or a secondary number is enough for those.
In the United States, the Telephone Consumer Protection Act gives consumers a private right of action. Statutory damages are 500 US dollars per violating call, and up to 1,500 US dollars per call where the violation was wilful or knowing. Small claims court is a realistic route when one company keeps calling after you registered and asked it to stop.
Keep a log: date, time, the number displayed, the company named, and what was said. Ask every caller for the company's legal name. Without that log you have a complaint. With it you have a case.
In Australia, complaints about calls to a registered number go to the ACMA, which enforces the Do Not Call Register Act. In the UK, the ICO fines companies for unsolicited marketing calls. In Canada, the CRTC administers the list and issues penalties.
Not in the United States, Australia or Canada, where registration stays in place unless you remove the number or it is disconnected and reassigned. UK TPS registration also stands until you remove it. Any message saying your registration is expiring is a scam.
Three reasons. Exempt callers such as charities, pollsters and debt collectors are allowed to call. Companies you bought from recently are allowed to call. And criminals ignore the list entirely. If a legitimate company makes a sales call more than 31 days after you registered in the US, that is a reportable violation.
Yes, in all four countries. There is no separate mobile registry, and there is no need to re-register a mobile despite what viral posts claim.
In the United States, telemarketing texts to mobiles fall under the same federal rules. In Australia, marketing SMS is governed by the Spam Act rather than the Do Not Call Register. Forward scam texts to 7726 in the US and UK, and in Australia report them to Scamwatch and your carrier.
In the United States, yes. The TCPA allows 500 US dollars per violating call, rising to 1,500 US dollars for wilful violations, and many claims are filed in small claims court. Elsewhere you complain to the regulator, which can fine the company but does not pay you directly.