Spam calls are a nuisance, and it's hard to know what to do when your number seems compromised.
Blocking a number might work temporarily, but there are so many spam numbers it's hard to keep up with them all. In most countries, there isn’t an official way to report them.
In Germany, however, you can report a spam or scam number directly to the national telecoms regulator (Bundesnetzagentur) — and the agency will actually act on it.
A verified report can get the number switched off, or see the company behind it fined or banned from billing through the number. In 2025, the Bundesnetzagentur switched off around 6,200 numbers for spamming and banned billing on more than 2,000 more.
"Germany has quietly built something most countries don't have: a report button that actually switches the scammer's number off," explains Peter, founder of scam-prevention platform Tutela Digitalis.
It's not just phone calls, either: spoofed caller ID, spam SMS, ping calls and mystery charges on your phone bill all fall under the same system.
Why to report cold calls
A working phone number, one that can dial out at volume without getting blocked, is essential operating infrastructure for a scam business.
So every number the Bundesnetzagentur switches off is a replacement cost for a scam business — a new number to buy and warm up.
"The catch is that almost nobody uses the power they have," Peter said. "The fastest way to hurt a phone scammer is to make their number worthless, and in Germany that takes a two-minute BNetzA form, not a police report."
How to report scam calls in Germany
What this means for you is that if you get a scam call, spam text or spoofed number in Germany, you can report it for free through the Bundesnetzagentur's online form.
Before picking which option on the form to go for, it helps to know which side your call falls on.
The Bundesnetzagentur runs one complaint hub for "trouble with numbers and calls" (Ärger mit Rufnummern und Anrufen). There, you’ll find a short form where you can explain what kind of calls you’re dealing with.
To make sure your report goes to the right place, there are a few terms to be familiar with:
Unauthorised telemarketing (Unerlaubte Telefonwerbung): This includes unsolicited sales calls. This is the category carries fines of up to €300,000 under the UWG, Germany's unfair-competition law.
Ping call (Ping-Anruf): These are the ones with a single ring from an unfamiliar, often foreign number, designed to tempt you into calling back a premium-rate line. Don't return the call; report the number instead.
SMS-Spam: These are fraudulent or unwanted texts, from fake parcel-delivery fees to fake job offers.
Number spoofing (Rufnummernmanipulation): This is when the caller ID displayed clearly wasn't the real origin of the call. For example a call from a fake police officer, a fake bank fraud department, the classic "grandchild trick", the caller ID is almost always made up. Here, the report that matters goes to the police; the regulator report is only a supporting signal.
What you’ll need to report
Whichever form you use, four details are all that's needed:
- the number displayed
- the date and time of the call
- what was said or claimed
- your own number so your carrier can identify the line
The first two pieces of information will be clear in your call log, but it’s best to report the calls as soon as possible so all the information stays fresh.
Deutsche Telekom users may be familiar with the short-code '7726' which can be used for forwarding spam texts. But note that this doesn't reach the Bundesnetzagentur.
It also worth noting that since December 2022, German law has required networks to strip the caller ID from foreign calls that try to display a German number. So these show up as "unknown".
But a call from a trustworthy-looking German number doesn't automatically mean it's official. As the German police's own scam prevention site puts it, officers wont call from 110. If in doubt, hang up and call an official agency back yourself.
What if money was involved?
If you paid money via phone to someone you think was a scammer, the order of operations flips. Start with a call to your bank: a transfer can sometimes still be stopped or recalled in the first hours.
Then, report the crime to the police via your state's online police portal (Online-Wache) or 110 in Germany.
Finally, you can file the Bundesnetzagentur report too, so the number itself gets processed.
Be wary of anyone who contacts you afterwards offering to recover the money you lost, for a fee, as that's a common follow-up scam.
How to keep your number off the target list
Scam operations price phone numbers by how responsive the people on the other end are. A number that answers, calls back or presses a key is worth more to them than one that doesn't react.
Three habits keep your number cheap to them:
- Never call back an unknown one-ring number
- Never press a key a robocall asks you to (even "to be removed from the list", which is a liveness check)
- Don't argue with telemarketers. Even a two-minute indignant conversation confirms the number is live and human. Hang up, file the form, block the number.
Finally, if you receive a call or a text that you are even mildly suspicious of — be it from the bank, Amazon, or a family member — the best thing to do is to hang up.
Then, you can go through official channels (via the official website or an official number you know) to check whether the call or text you received was real.
