How to stop spam calls, texts and email

The free government registry. Real telemarketers have to check it and leave you alone.

Go to donotcall.gov and you're on the official form. Your phone will offer to fill in your number and email — just tap its suggestions.

Register your everyday cell number — that's the one worth protecting.

One honest note: only you can register your own number — anyone who says they can do it for you is usually a scam. After you submit, the registry emails a confirmation link you click within 72 hours. That last tap is yours.

Your phone company already has a free app that blocks scam calls before they ring.

• AT&TAT&T's free app is ActiveArmor. It labels and blocks likely spam before your phone rings.→
• VerizonVerizon's free app is Call Filter. Turn it on and it screens robocalls out before they reach you.→
• T-MobileT-Mobile's free app is Scam Shield. Switch on Scam Block and spam calls are stopped for you.→

On another carrier? Most have a free scam-blocking app. Search your carrier's name plus “scam block” in the App Store or Google Play, or call them and ask to turn on free scam blocking — it usually costs nothing.

Unknown numbers go quietly to voicemail. Anyone in your contacts still rings through.

On iPhone:open Settings → Apps → Phone → Screen Unknown Callers → choose Silence. (On iOS 17 and earlier: Settings → Phone → Silence Unknown Callers.)

On Android:open the Phone app → menu → Settings → Caller ID & spam → turn on Filter spam calls. Suspected spam won't ring; people you know still get through.

Forwarding a junk text to 7726 reports it to your carrier — free, on every US network.

Forward the message to 7726 — that spells SPAM on the keypad. It's free on every US carrier and doesn't count against your plan. Your carrier usually texts back asking for the sender's number; reply with it and the report is done. Carriers use these reports to find and block whole spam campaigns — which is how one forward you send helps people you'll never meet.

Don't reply, and don't tap the link. Not even to say stop. With a company you actually use, replying STOP works — but with a stranger, any reply at all just confirms a live person is reading, and that makes your number worth more, not less.

Block and report from the message itself. On iPhone, tap the sender's name at the top → Info → Block this Caller, and use Report Junk under the message. On Android Messages, press and hold the conversation → Block → Report spam.

Filter unknown senders. On iPhone: Settings → Apps → Messages → Unknown Senders → turn on Screen Unknown Senders (called Filter Unknown Senders on iOS 18 and earlier), and texts from numbers you've never written to move to their own list instead of buzzing you. Google Messages has the same thing under your profile picture → Messages settings → Protection & Safety → Spam protection.

The habit that helps most is the one that feels least satisfying: report it instead of deleting it.

Report as spam — don't just delete. Deleting clears your screen and teaches your mail nothing. Marking it as spam or junk trains the filter that decides what reaches you tomorrow, and it's the single thing you can do that keeps working after you stop doing it.

Only unsubscribe from senders you recognize. If it's a shop you actually used, the unsubscribe link is honest and legally required to work. If you've never heard of them, treat unsubscribe the way you'd treat a stranger's text: report it instead. And where your mail offers a one-tap Unsubscribe at the top of the message, use that — it goes through your mail provider rather than through the sender.

Stop the images from loading. A single invisible image in a junk email tells the sender the address is live and being read. Gmail: Settings → General → Ask before displaying external images. Apple Mail: Settings → Apps → Mail → Privacy Protection → Protect Mail Activity.

Give a different address next time. Most signups don't need your real one. Apple's Hide My Email does it for free whenever you use “Sign in with Apple” — making one by hand needs iCloud+. Gmail lets you add +anything before the @ and still get the mail, so you can see which site leaked you and filter that one address straight into the bin. Some sites won't accept a + in the address, and a determined list-seller can strip it off — a good habit, not a wall.

A lot of spam starts here — companies that quietly collect your number and address and sell them.

Getting off their lists dries up the source. It won't stop every call, and brokers often re-add you within a few months, so it's worth repeating — but it's free and it helps. You do the filing yourself on the official sites. We never file for you.

If you live in California, the state runs a free tool called DROP. You make one request and it tells every registered data broker in the state to delete what they hold on you. Nothing goes through us.

Everywhere else,your state may already give you the right to ask brokers to delete your info — Colorado, Connecticut, Texas, Virginia, Oregon and a growing list have privacy laws — but there's no single one-click tool like California's yet. The next best thing is to opt out of the biggest brokers one at a time. Each one is free:

• Google — Results about youGet your number and address out of Google Search.→
• SpokeoOpt out of one of the largest people-search sites.→
• BeenVerifiedSearch your name, then confirm removal by email.→
• WhitepagesFind your listing and request suppression.→

For any other site that lists you, search its name plus “opt out” — most have a free form. And the honest part: this reduces the calls, it doesn't end them, and brokers re-list within months, so it's worth repeating a couple of times a year.

Once the list is done, these are the only two things that keep you off it.

Don't answer or press anything on a call you don't recognize — even “press 1 to stop” just tells them a real person is here. Let it go to voicemail.

When a new site or store asks for your number, give a second number instead of your main one — a free Google Voice number works. Your real number stays off the lists that get sold.