After repeated data breaches that no company really seems to give a s— about my phone is blowing up with literally hundreds of spam calls and texts month. I get and make MAAAAYBE 2 or 3 important calls per month, 180-200 of the rest are literally all spam. Anyone have any suggestions, apps ect that they have found refuge with? I really don’t use SMS that much either, mostly it’s via signal, discord whats app, ect…

Just to put it out there I run CalyxOS on a Pixel 5a.

  • Note: this depends a lot on which governments you pay taxes to (country, state/province, city). With that in mind:

    • Check if there’s a “do not call” list where you live - i.e. a gov-enforced list of numbers that you are forbidden to call for advertisement. If there is one, put your number there.
    • Do not answer spam calls at all. Usually it’s easy to identify them, but there are some applications for this, like this (it’s in F-Droid so likely available for CalyxOS). By simply not answering those calls, your number gets marked as “inactive” by the advertisers/spammers/telemarketers, so the frequency of the calls gets lower over time.
    • Get a new phone number, redirect all legitimate contacts to your new number, and trash away the old one.
    • gov-enforced list of numbers that you are forbidden to call for advertisement. If there is one, put your number there.

      As a scam caller from some country the US has no influence over, that would be a great resource!

      • I believe that it should still reduce the likelihood of spam calls - because you don’t advertise where you aren’t selling stuff, and if you’re selling stuff you don’t want to piss off the local government.

        For reference: where I live the “do not call” list is from the state. Most of those spam calls come from people in other states controlled by the same republic, thus not subjected to the rules of my state - and yet the “do not call” list still does its job.