On October 22, 2026, the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) published a consumer alert with a plain headline: the FTC is not calling to deactivate your phone number. If someone phones you and says otherwise, it is a scammer. This scam does not need any clever technology, but anyone can fall for a calm, official-sounding voice, and the same script is easy to copy in any country.
How the call goes, according to the FTC. The caller claims to be an FTC official and says a phone was registered in your name and number and is being used for scams in another country. They read out a badge number, which the FTC says is fake. If you hesitate, they threaten to deactivate your phone number.
Then you are passed on to a "police officer" to file a report. If you doubt it, you may be told to look up a police department's number online and call it yourself. The FTC says the people who answer there are part of the scam too. They ask for your ID and other personal details and tell you to keep it all secret.
Later comes a second call: you are told you will soon be arrested, and that you can avoid it by sending money as a "security deposit". The FTC says none of this is true.
Four things a real FTC employee will never do, according to the FTC:
- ask you to send money, or put you through to someone who does
- threaten to disconnect your phone
- tell you to keep the conversation secret
- text you a photo of an employee ID to prove who they are
Popular Science, which reported on the alert, describes the same story and the same trap: the police number you are told to look up online is also fake.
What to do
- Hang up. You owe a caller who threatens you nothing. The FTC says the threat to deactivate your number is untrue.
- Do not call back any number the caller gave you. If you want to check, end the call first, then find the agency's number on its official website or on an official letter.
- Tell someone. Secrecy is the scammer's tool. Talk to a family member or a friend before you do anything.
- If you already sent money or details, contact your bank or card company at once. In the US, report it at ReportFraud.ftc.gov. Elsewhere, tell your local police and your national consumer or fraud-reporting service.
Not only in the US
The FTC is an American agency, but the script is not tied to it. In other countries the caller pretends to be the tax office, the national police, a telecom operator or a bank. The warning signs are the same: a threat, a rush, a demand for secrecy, and money. Our earlier report on the FBI warning about fake police and officials lists the same pattern, and so does our guide to the fake customer service scam. If you have already paid, read what to do after sending money to a scammer.
Sources
- The FTC is not calling to deactivate your phone number — Federal Trade Commission
- Scam alert: The government is not deleting your phone number — Popular Science