iPhone - Spam Calls - options - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: mapleLC
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 07, 2025, 10:34:24 am
content: Dont know how worldwide the cell phone spamming problem is, but calls from the "loan approval department" from 10 different numbers are daily now. US here.What options are there, or best practices, to help with this?Ideally I would like a form of filter so that I never see the spam call or get a voicemail which is a hassle to clean. Out of sight out of mind.Hopefully the new FBI is not like the old FBI and does something about this garbage coming mostly from India.

author: golden_labels
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 08, 2025, 04:49:06 pm
content: First and foremost: whenever possible avoid selling your personal data — including the phone number. This is where they source it.(1)This is also how they prove you expressed clear and unambiguous acceptance for those calls, and usually received financial compensation too. I know it’s hard, because all people around you are normalizing selling data, making it an effort not to. But this is the primary and effective defense mechanism.Second: don’t answer the calls from numbers you don’t know and can’t identify,(2)unless you expect one. This cuts the bullshit by no less than an order of magnitude. By answering the call you give a very strong positive signal, boosting the value of your number. The way you react to the question about your name is also confirming it, building a good phone-name association, and boosting the value even more. Again, this causes some inconvenience on your end, because everybody assumes you are obligated to answer any call at any time and will try to blame you for not answering. Don’t block SMS, as any reasonable person should send you one, if they can’t contact you.There are some apps promising to “get rid of the problem.” They usually do the job, in the sense of doing that part of the bargain: they indeed block unwanted calls. But they share the same issues as all “just delegate it to a pest exterminator” solutions. So they have negative impact on you, your friends, innocent callers, and are borderline shadow banning and extortion:Companies behind them take into account only two factors. The one they advertise: true positives ratio. Ignoring that the confusion matrix has four fields and at least 2 of them must be provided. Influence from that factor is further limited only by what level of dissatisfied customers is balanced by the influx of new users. How good is the product is never in the consideration, as that’s not bringing profit.Very often they themselves slurp a lot of private data, including your phonebook and who you contact.Almost universally there is no sane way (and sometimes there is no way at all) to be clearly informed about what is going on and address it. Sometimes you have an option to whitelist somebody, and this is more common for phone number blockers than other similar solutions. But often you can do nothing and, if the affected person has any means of addressing it, that requires going through a process that requires waiving a lot of rights and selling their personal data.Don’t try to argue with the caller or be aggressive towards them. This is pointless, as the person calling you has zero control over the call. Unless this is an outright scam, which indeed happens to be the case, very often the calling person is a random worker of a huge call center. They just follow the script, which the call center just received from one of many customers.If it’s not a clear scam, don’t count on FBI. FBI or other police force can do nothing, if that’s a legal call.(1)Some callers may falsely claim it was randomized, but this isn’t true.(2)A routine internet search often is enough for phone numbers ofreasonableenterprises and government agencies.

author: Bud
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: March 08, 2025, 05:49:39 pm
content: I do not think it 'rejects' unwanted calls, just mutes them so the phone is not ringing/vibrating.

author: mapleLC
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 08, 2025, 09:26:06 pm
content: Quote from: Simmed on March 08, 2025, 05:20:55 pmQuote from: Bud on March 08, 2025, 05:49:39 pmI had seen this option but you end up with missed calls as a result.

author: mapleLC
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 08, 2025, 09:39:51 pm
content: Quote from: golden_labels on March 08, 2025, 04:49:06 pmVerizon has an app, I dont know if you can use it with a different carrier. I happen to be on that network, so this morning I set it up since its free in limited form. So far it has filtered 7 calls and everything that should get through has.The other option I found was RoboKiller but its a paid app with a lot of promises but also a $170 price tag which is a lot of money to block a nuisance. It seems highly regarded and blocks almost everything unwanted according to what I read.

author: Halcyon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: March 10, 2025, 02:35:03 am
content: I got to the point where I just divert all calls to voicemail. I've found spammers/scammers almost never leave a message. If someone I know wants to reach me straight away, they call me via Signal or send me a message.

author: mapleLC
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: March 10, 2025, 08:45:56 am
content: Quote from: Halcyon on March 10, 2025, 02:35:03 amIf that was my issue, I would do the same. Unfortunately almost every spam call leaves a voicemail, and within 5 days its full again.

author: Halcyon
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: March 10, 2025, 09:27:05 am
content: Quote from: mapleLC on March 10, 2025, 08:45:56 amBugger. Maybe change your greeting to "The number you have called is not in service..." etc... and just tell your friends/family that it's actually voicemail and to wait for the tone.