Recent studies have shown automated phone calls for solicitation of goods and services is on the rise. Currently, people receive about 19 unsolicited calls per month in the United States. It may be a telemarketer trying to pitch their product. These calls are annoying especially because most of the calls are coming from an “auto-dialer” which often plays a canned greeting and pitch.
One of the best things anyone can do regarding annoying phone calls is to join the “Do Not Call” Registry. This is a government sponsored program designed to identify spammers and eliminate them. It can be accessed online at https://www.donotcall.gov/ and everything is automated. The service is free and a great first step in blocking unwanted calls.
Call Control – Call Blocker
You can automatically block spam calls and other calls you don’t want to take with the Call Control – Call Blocker app. You can customize the types of calls you want to block with this handy app. The app blocks all spam calls automatically, so all you do is add numbers you want to block. You can even choose an entire area code to block if that is your preference.
There is also a personal white list to make sure you do not miss important calls. This is easily programmed into the app as well as all of the functions. The spam list stays current because active users continue to submit information about spammy call centers. This way, you can be sure to cover all the most recent solicitation activity. It even tracks and blocks spam activity related to text messages.
Hiya – Caller ID & Block
This is an excellent app for identifying calls and texts you want to block and those you want to accept. The Hiya – Caller ID & Block system is extremely simple to use, has no ads, and is free. You can blacklist unwanted phone numbers and also text messages. The app has a reverse phone search of incoming call data and information. The Hiya system is backed by literally hundreds of millions of confirmed spam phone numbers in its database.
The app is able to block telemarketers, fraudulent calls such as IRS scams, and robocalls. It can also function in real time an identify unknown spammers.
Truecaller
What do you do when you have an unknown number come up on your caller ID? Many people simply ignore it. What if you are waiting for an important call but don’t have the number in your contacts?
We hesitate to answer these calls in many cases. But with the Truecaller app you can rest easy. The app is free and allows you to copy and paste the phone number into a special search bar. The community spam list has over 250 million users, so it is very large and effective. This app also allows for blocking spam calls. It blinks a large warning in red when a spam call comes in, so it is easy to reject the unwanted calls. The numbers can then be added to a spam list and blocked for future calls.
