Is there any way to block my mobile phone from receiving any calls that are not in my address book?
Getting between 2 & 5 calls a day, every day, from numbers I don’t recognise - typically mobile numbers but also UK land lines and one from Florida. If I answer, they hang up so it’s obvious that they’re trying to establish if my number is live
Double post to make this visible
I just let them ring out, if they leave a message then it is probably legit, otherwise the number gets blocked.
Register with TPS, i did and I don't get many calls at all now, maybe one a month.
I don't answer any call from a number I don't have in my contacts list. If it's important they'll either ring back or leave a message.
@grahamt, @nickc - that’s what I do now. I’ve given up blocking them as they never ring again from that number
@frank - thanks, I’ll look into that
On android, if you open your phone dialer app, go to settings, blocked numbers, there should be an option to block unknown callers.
block unknown callers
Please don't do that. If the police, hospital, GP surgery, school etc. try to phone you it may well be from an unknown number. Its a hammer to crack a nut approach.
I take the NickC approach.
I don’t answer any call from a number I don’t have in my contacts list. If it’s important they’ll either ring back or leave a message.
+1
Anyone who calls and doesn't leave a message gets blocked as well. Was getting calls from the US, but eventually they stopped as I never answered.
Please don’t do that. If the police, hospital, GP surgery, school etc. try to phone
Oh I agree but the question was...
Is there any way to block my mobile phone from receiving any calls that are not in my address book?
If they are similar numbers that are calling newer versions of android can block wild cards I.e 08001234****
It’s an iPhone
But you’re right, it’s probably not a good idea to automatically block every number I don’t recognise.
It’s a bloody nuisance though
Its a pain...someone rang yesterday to let me know my national insurance number had been compromised 😉
Agree don't block all numbers..especially if you've got kids... school nurse used to ring on a withheld number if my two were ever sick in school.. stupid really as I imagine a fair few parents wouldn't answer
On Android, you can 'Add to blacklist ', so if you repeatedly get called from the same number, I add it to ze list
Set everyone you know to a new ringtone, then change the default to something obvious (and short). At least you'll know whether or not to even look at your phone.
Looking at call history, it’s a different number every time. The only repeat numbers are my wife, my optician, the vet, my doctor and my dentist.
Billy no-mates, eh?
An "Unsaved numbers straight to voicemail" option could be useful. As above, scammers / questionable salespeople seem to hardly ever leave messages, where as most legitimate callers hopefully would (and / or message via alternate means).
I’ve just checked and I’m already registered with TPS so sales & marketing calls are supposedly banned. Other types of calls, including nuisance and abusive calls, are not affected by TPS.
Hard to identify who it is or what they want when they hang up as soon as you answer
I’ve just checked and I’m already registered with TPS so sales & marketing calls are supposedly banned.
But that only applies to legitimate marketing companies based in the UK.
Any scammer or overseas marketing company won't care.
It also only covers humans phoning. I was getting a few calls a day last week that were recorded messages claiming to be BT but nothing I can do about it as recorded messages are not covered.
someone rang yesterday to let me know my national insurance number had been compromised
This started yesterday with me, answered 1st number that rang blocked that but must've had about 20 calls now from different but similar numbers. Dont answer them either.
Really a pain in hoop
There's a been a huge uptick in this since giving the gov't my details through track and trace...I understand conformation bias but also; Dido Harding....
I had a look through the iPhone settings and there is an option to block unknown calls, but I fear it may block out the 0.01% of unknown calls that I do want to get through.
I guess I’ll have to put up with it & hope it goes away eventually 🙁
I had a look through the iPhone settings and there is an option to block unknown calls, but I fear it may block out the 0.01% of unknown calls that I do want to get through.
Thats the issue, you don't want a total firewall incase of an urgent call, if a family member has to borrow a phone from a kind stranger in an emergency to call you etc.
On Android, you can ‘Add to blacklist ‘, so if you repeatedly get called from the same number, I add it to ze list
I find this to be fairly effective, but overseas spammers can 'spoof' numbers, and I had a rally of calls that were all almost the same number just with the last digit or two different..
That's where the wild card function comes in, so say a number is 11 digits, you can blacklist the last few digits of the same number. Not sure if Iphones can do that , but newer android ones can.
I don’t answer any call from a number I don’t have in my contacts list. If it’s important they’ll either ring back or leave a message.
That's my usual method but with having made loads of job applications in the last few weeks I have to answer them all just in case. I'm definitely getting a lot more rogue calls now that I've started answering them, almost like I'm now on a list of numbers that are known to be active.
I set my phone to send any unrecognised calls, those not in my contacts list, straight to voicemail. I get very few calls, the only one that might show as ‘unknown’ would be my bank account manager, but if necessary she would call me on her personal phone to which I have the number, and it’s very, very rare for me to get calls from my bank anyway.
There are no other people or organisations who I would expect a call from who I don’t already have the number of, and if they really need to speak to me, then they can leave a message, like any reasonable person would.
It certainly works, I almost never get unsolicited calls to my mobile these days, I’m struggling to remember the last one, at least, the last one that actually rang through; I do still get sudden flurries of calls, when I get a notification, so I’ll often do an internet ’who called me’ search, and every time it’s a spam caller.
If you have an iPhone you can turn on “Silence Unknown Callers” All unknown numbers will be sent straight to voicemail and displayed on recents list.
I’ve set my phone to ‘silence unknown calls’ - seems to have done the trick. If it’s important they can leave a voicemail message
