Pennsylvania Do Not Call List: Signup, Renewal, and Exemptions

To join the Pennsylvania Do Not Call list, register your landline or cell number for free through the Office of Attorney General, either online at the agency’s Do Not Call page or by calling 1-888-777-3406.¹ You’ll need your ten-digit phone number and a valid email address if you sign up online, since the system sends a confirmation link you have to click to activate the registration. The state list runs on a five-year cycle, so plan to re-enroll before it expires.

How to Register Your Number

There are two ways in. Online registration through the Attorney General’s website is the fastest: enter your phone number and email, then open the confirmation message and click the verification link. By phone, dial 1-888-777-3406 and follow the prompts.¹

Both landlines and wireless numbers qualify. The Telemarketer Registration Act defines the registry as covering any “residential or wireless telephone subscriber” who tells the list administrator they want solicitation calls to stop.² There is no fee, and you can register each phone number in your household separately.

When the Calls Should Actually Stop

Registering today does not stop calls tomorrow. Telemarketers operating in Pennsylvania buy an updated copy of the list every quarter, and once a new quarterly list is published they get 30 days to scrub the newly added numbers from their calling databases.³ The ban on calling your number kicks in only after that 30-day window closes following the first quarterly list that includes you.

In practical terms, that means several weeks can pass between the day you sign up and the day legitimate telemarketers are legally required to leave you alone. If calls keep coming during that window, the system is working as designed, not failing.

When You Need to Renew

Pennsylvania registration lasts five years. After that, your number drops off and you have to re-enroll to keep the protection. This is a meaningful difference from the federal registry, where numbers stay on permanently until the line is disconnected and reassigned or you ask to be removed.⁴ Set a calendar reminder for five years out so the lapse doesn’t catch you off guard.

Also Register on the Federal List

The Pennsylvania list and the National Do Not Call Registry are separate systems. Signing up for one does not sign you up for the other, and registering on both gives you two independent layers of enforcement.

To add your number to the federal registry, go to DoNotCall.gov or call 1-888-382-1222 from the phone you want to register. Online signups send an email with a confirmation link that must be clicked within 72 hours.⁴ Under federal rules, telemarketers must check the registry at least every 31 days and remove listed numbers from their call lists.⁵

The second reason to register federally: it opens a private right to sue under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, which the state list on its own does not provide.

Calls That Still Come Through Legally

Neither registry blocks every call. Several categories of callers are explicitly carved out of Pennsylvania’s definition of “telemarketer” and can keep calling you even after you register:

Businesses you’ve previously bought from, if they’ve operated under the same name for at least three years.²
Educational institutions, hospitals, public libraries, senior centers, and parent-teacher associations, as long as they aren’t using an unregistered professional fundraiser.
Businesses licensed, certified, or registered with a federal or state agency, when calling within the scope of that licensed activity.
Business-to-business sellers that have operated for at least three years and derive more than half their revenue from repeat business sales.
Catalog sellers using catalogs of at least 24 pages, distributed in more than one state, with annual circulation of 250,000 or more.

Political calls are outside the rules entirely. The Act defines telemarketing as calls made to “induce the purchase of goods or services or to solicit contributions,” which doesn’t reach campaign calls.² The federal Telemarketing Sales Rule likewise excludes political solicitations.⁶

Federal rules also allow surveys and polls that don’t include a sales pitch, purely informational messages, debt collection calls (if there’s no sales pitch attached), and calls from companies you’ve given written permission to contact you.⁶ The debt collection carve-out trips people up. If a collector is calling about a legitimate debt, Do Not Call registration won’t stop those calls; you’d need to use the separate written cease-communication process under federal debt collection law.

What to Do If Telemarketers Keep Calling

Once the 30-day scrub window has passed and your registration is live, continued telemarketing calls may be violations. Before you file anything, start a call log. For each suspicious call, write down:

The exact date and time
The number on your caller ID, even if you think it’s fake
Any callback number given during the call or voicemail
The name of the company or caller
What product or service was pitched
Whether it was a live person or a recorded message

To file with the state, first verify your registration on the Do Not Call Verification page on the Attorney General’s website by entering your phone number, then complete the complaint form with your contact information, the call details, and the caller ID.⁷ You can also print the form and mail it to the Bureau of Consumer Protection, Strawberry Square, 15th Floor, Harrisburg, PA 17120, or call the Bureau at 1-888-777-3406.

For federal complaints, report the call at DoNotCall.gov. The FTC wants the number that received the call, the caller ID number, any callback number, and the date and time.⁸ Filing in both places puts the complaint in both agencies’ systems.

If the same company calls you more than once in a 12-month period after you’re on the registry, the TCPA lets you sue in state court for $500 per violation, or your actual loss if higher, and up to $1,500 per call if the court finds the violation was willful.⁹ A telemarketer can defend by showing it had reasonable procedures in place to prevent the violation, but many repeat offenders cannot meet that bar. A detailed call log is what turns a complaint into a case you can bring in small claims without hiring a lawyer.

1
Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General. Do Not Call List
2
Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General. Pennsylvania Telemarketer Registration Act
3
Pennsylvania General Assembly. Pennsylvania Code Title 73 PS Trade and Commerce 2245.2 – Unwanted Telephone Solicitation Calls Prohibited
4
Federal Trade Commission. National Do Not Call Registry FAQs
5
Federal Trade Commission. Information For Business – National Do Not Call Registry
6
Federal Trade Commission. Q&A for Telemarketers and Sellers About DNC Provisions in TSR
7
Pennsylvania Office of Attorney General. Do Not Call Verification
8
Federal Trade Commission. Robocalls
9
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 47 USC 227 – Restrictions on Use of Telephone Equipment