When you look up a phone number on Phoneya, you may see various risk indicators. This page explains exactly what each indicator means and how we determine risk levels.
What it means: This phone number has been reported to the Federal Trade Commission's Do Not Call Registry by one or more consumers.
How we verify it: We sync directly with the FTC's official complaint database daily. This is government data, not user-submitted.
What it doesn't mean: An FTC flag does not necessarily mean the number is illegal or that the caller committed fraud. It means consumers filed complaints about unwanted calls from this number.
Complaint count: We display how many FTC complaints have been filed. Higher numbers indicate more consumers reported the number.
We calculate risk levels based on multiple factors:
High Risk / Likely Scam
Medium Risk / Suspicious
Low Risk / Likely Legitimate
Unknown
Users can classify calls into these categories:
Our assessments are not definitive. A "high risk" label does not prove illegal activity, and a "low risk" label does not guarantee safety.
Scammers change numbers frequently. A number with no reports today could be used for scams tomorrow.
Legitimate businesses get flagged. Some users report legitimate calls as scams. We try to account for this but aren't always accurate.
Always verify independently. If someone claims to be from your bank, hang up and call your bank's official number directly.
