My Number Reported as Spam: Why It Happens & What to Do (2024)

Written byNicole Levine, MFA

Last Updated: May 20, 2024Fact Checked

Why Your Number Was Reported as Spam

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1. 1

   Your phone number used to belong to a spammer. If you recently got a new phone number and your calls show up as Spam, Spam Risk, or Scam Likely, the previous owner likely used the number to place spam calls. If enough people reported calls from the number as spam, it'll be added to lists of spam phone numbers blocked by phone providers and in apps like Nomorobo and Robokiller. Because phone numbers are recycled so often, this is more common than you'd think.

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   You used your phone number to place a high volume of calls. This is uncommon if you're just a regular person making an average number of phone calls. However, if you operate a business and place a high number of outbound calls, your activity may look suspicious to your phone provider. It's also possible the people you're calling are marking your calls as spam and blocking them.

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   A scammer spoofed your phone number. Scammers often use caller ID spoofing to hide their identities from those they attempt to defraud. If a scammer or spam caller edited their caller ID information to display your phone number instead of their own, people may have reported your number as spam.

   • If you think somebody is spoofing your phone number, the FCC recommends filing a report.^[1]

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1. 1

   Register your phone number with the Free Call Registry (business). The Free Call Registry is a partnership among multiple anti-robocall agencies (First Orion, Hiya, and Transaction Network Services) that makes it easy for businesses to mark their phone numbers as legitimate. If your phone number is used for business purposes, go to https://www.freecallerregistry.com/fcr/ and click Register Here to add it.

   • During registration, you'll be asked to provide your name, phone number, address, business information, and the number of calls you plan to make each month.^[2]
   • Once your request is processed, you'll receive confirmation from the three agencies.
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   Submit your phone number to TNS Call Guardian (personal). If your personal phone number was reported as spam, you can request to have it unblocked by TNS (Transaction Network Services), an agency many apps and phone providers use to label and block spam calls. To get unblocked:

   • Go to https://reportarobocall.com/trf/.
   • Scroll down and select My Personal Phone Number at the bottom.
   • Choose whether you're submitting an issue with your wireless or wired line.
   • Select My telephone number was mislabeled as spam.
   • Click Next and fill out the form.
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   Submit your phone number to Hiya (personal). Hiya is a service used by AT&T Call Protect and Samsung Smart Call to protect users from spam calls.^[3] You can register your phone number with Hiya directly to remove it from the list of spam numbers.

   • Go to https://hiyahelp.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/requests/new?ticket_form_id=824667.
   • Select "There is a problem with the information shown for a phone number" from the first drop-down menu.
   • Enter your information, then select Person (Number makes no business calls) from the menu.
   • Check the box next to "I believe my number is wrongly flagged as spam" and complete the rest of the form.
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   Send a request to Verizon Voice Spam Feedback (personal and business). If you find that your phone number is labeled as a spam risk when calling Verizon phone numbers, you can fill out the form at https://voicespamfeedback.com/vsf/.

   • Under "I am providing feedback about," check the box next to "My calls to Verizon phone numbers are being incorrectly categorized, labeled, or blocked."
   • Choose whether your phone number is for business or personal use.
   • Fill out and submit the form.
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   Send a request to T-Mobile Call Reporting (personal). If T-Mobile users are seeing "Scam Likely" when you call them, you can report your phone number as misidentified at https://callreporting.t-mobile.com. This form is for T-Mobile customers, but you can also fill it out of you recently called a T-Mobile user.

   • On the form, select Not a Scam Likely call, and then choose I know the caller personally.
   • Fill out the requested information in the form, including the date on which the T-Mobile user saw "Scam Likely" when you called.
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   Contact your phone service provider if you remain blocked. If your phone number doesn't stop showing up as a spam call after removing it from spam lists, contact your mobile, residential, or business phone provider to let them know about the problem. As long as your outgoing calls are found to be legitimate, your provider should be able to remove the block.

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