The Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991 (TCPA) regulates robocalls. A robocall, also known as "voice broadcasting," is any telephone call that delivers a prerecorded message using an automatic (computerized) telephone dialing system, more commonly referred to as an automatic dialer or "autodialer." When the call is answered, the autodialer either connects the call to a live person or plays a prerecorded message. Both are considered robocalls. Some robocalls use personalized audio messages to simulate an actual personal phone call. As discussed in more detail below (in " Classification of Telemarketing Calls "), the TCPA prohibits robocalls to consumers' traditional landline numbers, consumers' Voice-over-Internet-Protocol (VoIP) landline numbers, and all mobile numbers. Robocalls to business landlines are not covered by the TCPA. Robocalls are popular with many industry groups, such as real estate, telemarketing, and direct sales companies. The majority of companies who use robocalling are legitimate businesses, but some are not. Those illegitimate businesses may not just be annoying consumers—they may also be trying to defraud them. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Federal Communications Commission (FCC) regularly cite "unwanted and illegal robocalls" as their number-one complaint category. These complaints, as well as complaints to congressional offices, have spurred Congress to take action in an effort to protect consumers. Congress has held hearings to investigate efforts to develop technical solutions to stop illegal robocalls and ways to update the TCPA to better protect consumers, especially seniors and other vulnerable groups (e.g., immigrants without a good understanding of English). Six bills have been introduced in the 115 th Congress to address this issue. Legislative efforts have included proposals to expand the definition of "spoofing" to include text messages and calls made from outside the United States, as well as to protect seniors from fraud perpetrated through robocalls. In addition to regulating robocalls, the TCPA authorized the National Do Not Call (DNC) Registry. The registry, which was created in 2003, allows consumers to "opt out" of receiving telemarketing calls on their landline and mobile phones, regardless of whether they are robocalls or not. As of September 30, 2017, the registry had nearly 230 million active registrations, up from about 226 million at the same time in 2016. The TCPA does not prohibit all robocalls, that is, not all robocalls are illegal. Legal robocalls are used by legitimate call originators for political, public service, and emergency messages, which are legal. Illegal robocalls are usually associated with fraudulent telemarketing campaigns, although an illegal robocall under the TCPA does not necessarily mean that the robocall is fraudulent. For example, it is illegal to make a marketing robocall to a cellphone without written consent. That call would not necessarily be intended to defraud the consumer. The TCPA also treats calls to mobile phones differently than calls to landlines and treats calls to consumers differently than calls to businesses. This report addresses robocalls that are both illegal under the TCPA and intended to defraud, not robocalls that are defined only as illegal. Robocalls to consumer landlines are illegal under the TCPA without prior written consent. An autodialer legally may be used to call a consumer landline, but only if the call does not use a prerecorded or artificial voice. The exceptions to the landline robocall prohibition are calls for emergency purposes, purely informational calls (e.g., school closings, flight delays), calls made for a noncommercial purpose (e.g., charities, political parties), and calls made by a business that do not include an advertisement or constitute telemarketing (e.g., product recall notices). Unlike the case for consumer landlines, nearly all sales calls to a business landline—including for a product or service from a telemarketer—are generally exempt from the DNC and robocall rules of the FTC. The two exceptions are if the caller is trying to make a sale to an employee at work that does not relate to work, in which case the caller must comply with the DNC and robocall rules for a consumer landline; and sale of "nondurable office or cleaning supplies" (e.g., printer ink), in which case the caller must comply with the robocall rules. Robocalls to both consumer and business mobile phones without written consent are generally illegal under the TCPA. Exceptions to this rule are public service and emergency messages, but political robocalls to mobile phones are illegal without prior consent. Consent for some other non-telemarketing calls does not need to be in writing, but even if a consumer has previously given consent, that consent may be revoked at any time. Subsequent calls would then be illegal. Despite the existence of the DNC Registry and the fact that most robocalls are illegal, the number of robocalls continues to grow in the United States. In 2016, YouMail reported an average of 2.4 billion robocalls being made each month. In May 2018, that figure rose to an all-time high of 4.1 billion robocalls, up sharply from the previous high of 2.9 billion robocalls in August 2017 (see Figure 1 ). YouMail states that this latest figure equals about 12 to 13 calls per person each month in the United States, up from just under 8 calls in January 2018. Consumer complaints continue to grow as well (see Table 1 ). The FTC received over 7.1 million complaints about robocalls in FY2017, up from 5.3 million complaints in FY2016. Both the FTC and the FCC, as well as individual states, have jurisdiction over robocalls and fraudulent calls; they can impose civil fines on those who break the law. In addition, in some instances, other federal agencies, such as the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of the Treasury, and the Internal Revenue Service (IRS), may prosecute robocall-related cases under criminal law. The FTC regulates trade, including all telemarketing practices, regardless of how a call is initiated. The FTC's focus is on protecting consumers from scams and enforcing the rules associated with the DNC Registry. The FTC's primary concerns are the content of the call, whether that call was fraudulent, and whether the call was made to a number on the DNC Registry. The Telemarketing and Consumer Fraud and Abuse Prevention Act, which became law in 1994, authorized the FTC to regulate telemarketing calls. As required by the law, the FTC promulgated the Telemarketing Sales Rule (TSR), which requires telemarketers to disclose certain information; prohibits misrepresentations by telemarketers; sets limits on the times of day that telemarketers may call consumers; prohibits calls to a consumer who has asked not to be called again; and sets payment restrictions for the sale of certain goods and services. The FTC rules apply only to interstate calls (calls that originate in one state and end in another), not intrastate calls (calls that originate and end in the same state), as the FTC does not have jurisdiction over intrastate trade activities. The FTC provides exemptions similar to those of the FCC, but the FTC specifically excludes any exemption for telemarketers calling on behalf of exempt entities. For example, a politician running for office cannot hire a contractor to make robocalls on behalf of the campaign. The FCC regulates communications, including all telemarketing calls, regardless of whether they are fraudulent or not. Its focus is on the call itself, rather than the content of the call. The FCC's authority to regulate robocalls comes from the TCPA and its rules apply to both interstate and intrastate calls (with exemptions for certain entities and certain types of calls, as noted previously). States have their own laws covering intrastate telemarketing calls. Many of the laws have exemptions, like those of the FCC and FTC. Plus, many states claim authority to apply their statutes to calls originating outside the state. The FTC has undertaken vigorous law enforcement efforts against those making illegal calls. The FTC has brought 131 law enforcement actions against more than 750 companies and individuals that the agency alleged were responsible for placing billions of fraudulent telemarketing calls to consumers in violation of the Telemarketing Sales Rule. The FTC has obtained more than $1.5 billion in judgments against these violators and banned many of them from making robocalls in the future. (See Appendix D for a summary of the cases and fines imposed by the FTC on individuals and companies for conducting fraudulent robocall campaigns.) In addition to enforcement actions against individuals responsible for making robocalls intended to defraud, the FTC is pursuing technical solutions to block robocalls, including its Robocall Challenge program. (Details of the individual challenges and the winners are included in Appendix B .) As of August 1, 2017, when consumers report DNC or robocall violations to the FTC, the robocaller phone numbers provided are released each day to telecommunications carriers and other industry partners that are implementing technical call-blocking solutions. The consumer complaint data are critical to achieving the goal of this initiative, as many existing call-blocking solutions rely on "blacklists." These blacklists are databases of telephone numbers that have received a significant number of consumer complaints. The data being provided include the date and time an unwanted call was received, the general subject matter of the call (such as debt reduction, energy, warranties, home security, etc. ), and whether the call was a robocall.