Here’s Why You’re Still Stuck in Robocall Hell

[DrQ]

Here’s Why You’re Still Stuck in Robocall Hell
Despite major progress fighting spam and scams, the roots of the problem go far deeper than your phone company’s defenses.

Here’s Why You’re Still Stuck in Robocall Hell

Despite major progress fighting spam and scams, the roots of the problem go far deeper than your phone company’s defenses.

www.wired.com

 

[pedro47]

Very interesting article.

 

[x3 skier]

Funny but my land line gets a few a day but my Cell hardly ever gets any. Both are thru ATT. The Cell has an ATT provided free Spam blocker but the VOIP land line doesn’t offer one.

Cheers

 

[dago]

I simply don't answer them. I don't have a landline. I have set up my cell phone with one standard ringtone for all calls I am not familiar with. When I hear that ringtone, I simply ignore the call. If it happens to be a legitimate call, chances are they will leave a message, and I can respond at my leisure.
I realize, this option is not applicable to everyone, but for me it works fine.
Once in a while, if I have nothing to do, I will answer and if it's a robocall or a scam, I simply hang up. The best thing to do is not answer. At some point they will stop calling.
A while back I was getting calls from the same number in my area code every day for about 2 weeks (sometimes more than one call a day), I never answered. I have no idea who it was. Eventually they stopped calling.
Of course, they may be using another number now, but I still don't answer.

 

[TheHolleys87]

I love my Apple Watch because when a call comes in from an unnamed number, I can tap the watch face and send it straight to voicemail. If they’re legit, they’ll leave a message. If no message and they call again, I’ll block that number. I had to start doing that because some deadbeat chose my cell number as the number to use whenever he applied for a loan or whatever, and I was getting the many, many collections calls. So my voicemail greeting begins “If you’re calling for [name], you have the wrong number.”

 

[Makai Guy]

I have set up my cell phone with one standard ringtone for all calls I am not familiar with. When I hear that ringtone, I simply ignore the call.

I have done the same, and took it one step further. I created a ringtone consisting of one second of silence and use that as the default ringtone for numbers not in my contacts.

 

[Ralph Sir Edward]

I bought an external call blocker or my VIOP landline. If its spam I block it. I bought it after I started getting calls from my own number. (My phone number had been spoofed.)

 

[pittle]

We converted our house phone number to Magic Jack when we cut the cable. Magic Jack has a feature that asks you to type a # before it starts ringing - therefore, it has to be a real person to do so. We do not answer any calls that do not have just a phone number that we do not recognize. If they leave a message, I get an email translation. I save numbers that we want to keep and put the name in the contacts list on the phone, so we do know who is calling.

I seldom get robocalls on my cell phone, but use the Silence Unkown Callers feature turned on my iPhone. T-Mobile has a Spam Shield that will mark some as potential spam.