Phone Companies Still Suck At Stopping Unwanted Scam Robocalls, Something That Will Get Much Worse Under Trump 2.0

We’ve long noted how absurd it is that scammers, debt collectors, and greedy telemarketers have ruined our voice communications networks. We’ve somehow just normalized it.

We’ve also noted how a big reason our robocall problem never gets fixed is because Congress and regulators routinely fixate on scammers and not on the “legit” companies like debt collectors that use the same tactics and routinely undermine reform and enforcement efforts.

Another major problem is that federal regulators refuse to hold phone companies accountable for their lagging efforts to combat fraud and spam. Case in point: Truecaller’s U.S. Spam and Scam Report found that half of all major U.S. phone companies earned a D or F in their efforts to combat annoying robocalls and scams.

The study surveyed nearly two dozen U.S. home phone and wireless providers, and found countless providers hadn’t yet implemented SHAKEN/STIR technology to combat spoofed phone numbers. Many still don’t even bother to provide very basic services like on-screen scam warnings for incoming calls, or tools allowing customers to block calls that don’t display Caller ID. 

“It’s unconscionable that these multi-bazillion-dollar companies don’t use every preventative measure available while scammers rip off innocent, vulnerable consumers every single day,” said Teresa Murray, Consumer Watchdog Director for U.S. PIRG Education Fund and author of Who’s Calling? “Even if we don’t fall prey to a scam, we waste countless hours a year answering unwanted calls, sorting out what’s legitimate or just having our concentration broken while we’re trying to work, relax or enjoy family time.”

Again, the federal government every six months over the last decade has announced they were “taking new steps” to crack down on the problem of automated scam calls. Yet according to the latest data from the YouGov Robocall Index, U.S. consumers received just over 4.7 billion robocalls in January 2025, marking a nearly 9% increase from December 2024.

Again, there are lots of reasons for this that have long been documented by groups like the National Consumer Law Center (NCLC).

A corrupted court system has consistently limited the FCC’s authority to combat robocalls. Government officials, corrupted by lobbying influence, routinely refuse to hold big companies accountable for their roles in either enabling or refusing to block scams. Those corrupted lawmakers like to keep the focus on scammers, when many “legit” companies leverage the exact same tactics as scammers.

As Trump takes a hatchet to whatever’s left of the authority of agency’s like the FCC, you can absolutely expect the problem to get worse. The Biden FCC at least made a passing effort to pressure big wireless companies to accelerate the deployment of anti-spoofing tech, and would consistently fine the lowest hanging fruit in the scumbag and scammer ecosystem (see: Jacob Wohl and Jack Burkman).

In contrast the Trump FCC is now run by a guy who has never stood up to a telecom giant in his life, and seems more interested in leveraging the FCC to threaten broadcasters who don’t adequately kiss authoritarian ass or who factually report the news. And the Trump-stocked Supreme Court and DOGE are dead set on turning regulators like the FCC into the functional equivalent of decorative seasonal gourds.

Contrary to the fever dreams of MAGA cultists and “free market libertarian think tank” folks, there’s a reason we have something vaguely resembling coherent federal governance and semi-cogent regulators. Even worse robocalls will be one of countless, and very painful, crash courses on the subject.