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.
so, your mileage may vary but here’s what I do:
- people I want to talk to are in my contacts list
- I ignore all other incoming calls
- voicemail is a filter. use it.
If they don’t leave a voicemail, then it’s either spam or not urgent.
Fuck the people (like my boss) who say “You’re so hard to get hold of”. Send a message or leave a voicemail, you caveman.
Or a debt collector. Fuck those people.
I keep my voicemail full. Text me if you need to talk from a number I don’t have in my contacts
I just don’t answer unless the number is in my contacts list. If it’s important, they will leave a voicemail and I will call back. Spammers almost never leave a voicemail.
Pixel phone user, the built in spam blocker seems very reliable. When something goes through I use the call screening feature.
This is the reason why I won’t consider anything but a Pixel. I’ve tried other phones a couple of times but ended up replacing them with Pixels for the spam blocking.
I switched from the Pixel 4a to the RAZR+ due to no more OS updates from Google and miss the call screening functionality.
I have a pixel. How do I enable this? The only thing I see is an option to warn me when it’s suspected spam. But I don’t see any way to prevent it from ringing.
Check my other reply to this comment
I guess your other comment didn’t federate to my instance, because there is no other comment by you in this thread. I even checked your profile. Can you link me to it?
My message and a slightly different location said by another user. Hope it helps
Railcar8095 In the phone app: Settings > Caller ID& spam > Filter spam calls
shalafi@lemmy.world You got me in the right place! Phone settings -> Spam and Call Screen -> Call Screen Spam
Oh, call screen? I was afraid that would answer the calls with the Google Assistant and make it so more spammers would call me.
I never answer unless I recognize the caller. If it is important they can leave a voice mail.
On the plus side I no longer get the weekly call from the Chinese lady.
I do the same. And then I quickly block the number I didn’t know. Seems to help, but I still get lots of spam calls.
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.
I had a similar attack of spam calls for a while. It started the moment I answered one call and continued for months. Simply not answering was not enough. Blocking specific numbers does not help either because they change every time. I then blocked all calls not in my address book for a few weeks and that helped. I could then disable the block again and for a year only got an occasional call here and there but could ignore it based on the area code. Now it finally seems quiet.
I’m on an iPhone. Could not find any other way that would help me block spam calls that is not expensive and/or privacy invasive. So blocking everything is the only option.
I have a Pixel 5a too and the call screening option is a godsend.
If you’re in the US isn’t there that law that allows you to request to be put on the black list? And if anybody ignores this list you can receive damages.
Most of the people calling you are scammers pretending to be political or charity campaigns using sketchy urls each time asking for money so I doubt they care about breaking the law more than they already are
The federal Do Not Call list is effective at weeding out legitimate companies trying to sell products that should be illegal, but scammers obviously have no need to respect the Do Not Call list. Unfortunately this is a problem with many sides, including captive regulators, insane wealth disparities between nations, cultural conflict, and problematic network protocols, so it will require action from multiple angles to fully stamp out
Wait, damages? I could have been rich last election cycle.
Yet Another Call Blocker is in F-Droid.
I kept my phone number from a different state so everyone that calls from that area code can be ignored. I also have AT&T’s ActiveArmor app (free) and it blocks most of them. I used to get 2-4 a day but I’m down to 1ish a week now.
Answering vs not answering didn’t really ever make a difference for me, but I’ve heard lots of things like don’t answer and they’ll think the line isn’t real or answer but play the do Do DO sound effect or answer but leave it silent. Not sure if any will help.
Is there any pattern to the numbers they are coming from? For example, many of the calls i get spoof my area code and first 3 digits so I block those numbers automatically.
I’ve also used an app called Mr. Number in the past to screen potential spam calls for me.
Port Phone number to twilio
Set up call rules for incoming messages. Drop off calls from the same area code three digits as your number.
Then forward to your phone
You can do the same for SMS.
I want one step further, and got a new number in Montana, the least dense state. And I know if any messages or calls come in from a Montana number it’s purely spam, so I drop those calls.
You can go a couple steps further, get a bunch of twilio numbers, and give them out to different businesses when they require a phone number. Then if you ever drop the relationship with that business, you can drop the number and if the number leaks you know where it came from.
Try “Should I Answer?” works flawlessly for me. If you don’t subscribe, you have to manually update the database every week or so, for which you can get a notification.
I know they don’t have the best reputation, but Truecaller’s ‘Voice Assistant’ feature has been a godsend for me. The basic bot answers calls from unknown numbers and transcribes their response before ringing, and only if they don’t hang up. I’ll look at my phone to see I have a few missed calls from unknown numbers, only to find that Truecaller intercepted them all and they hung up once they heard the message that the call was being screened. It’s great.
Folks that call for legitimate reasons that aren’t in my contacts generally leave a message and I get the call once they’ve left it. Folks that are in my contacts ring as normal.
I run ‘Should I Answer?’ as my dialer. Imperfect, but phone rings ~80% less. Sms, I stopped trying after T-mobile intermittently stopped delivering me texts and declared they’ll only support Google’s official messenger.
FCC, & everyone else responsible for this garbage oughta sit on spits.