Spam calls are driving me crazy

[Anonymous]

Throughout the day I've been getting calls on my cell phone and a voice mail about every 20 minutes. The calls come up as "Potential Spam" or "Unknown" -- with no number that I can block. I don't want to put my phone on Do Not Disturb, and there are legitimate calls that I may from numbers that are not in my directory. Mostly I'm venting, and angry, but if anyone has a possible solution, I'd love to hear it. I'm also sick at the thought that I may lose saved voice mails if my mailbox gets full due to this mess. Sigh.

[Anonymous]

No solution. I have found that most of the calls don't leave messages though so that may ease your worries about vm. I want to share that I received a spam call yesterday on my Google Voice account that I use for my students. Nothing is safe from spam!

[Anonymous]

I had this issue - my old cell number (which I've used for years for both personal and business) somehow ended up on a list of "businesses we can try to scam." I got nonstop calls for loan approvals, stamp machines, all sorts of crap.

I signed up with voip.ms and ported my number over to them (don't cancel your cell number first, let the number transfer). They made it really easy. I also picked up a new "home" phone line from them with a 202 area code. Had T-Mobile give me a new 202 cell number. Using voip.ms system, I directed all the calls to a voice greeting (paid someone on fiverr to record it) that tells people to press one for my cell, two for my home, or three for my cell. Pressing the right option forwards the call. Not pressing anything takes them to a voicemail box. Recordings are emailed to me.

I no longer get spam calls on my phone. None of these people will press a button, because it's all automated. They just go to the voicemail, which is emailed to me and promptly ignored.

I now give out the "home" number to people and have added frequent callers to a list that auto-forwards without the message. I don't give out my cell number.

[Anonymous]

Do you have an iPhone or Android? I have the original Google Pixel. We have two features for spam calls. One is a screen call feature that pops up for every call in between Accept and Decline. It plays an automated message asking the caller to say their name and why they're calling. I can see a transcript in real time of what they're saying and hit pre-formatted followup questions like 'Tell me more." NONE of the spam calls ever say anything. They just hang up.

The other feature is an automatic screen for every unknown or suspected spam number. The phone doesn't ring at all for those. It only rings if they say anything, and then it gives me the option to accept the call or respond with an automated message like "No thank you" or "Leave a voicemail and I'll call you back."

I haven't received a spam call in over a year.

[Anonymous]

Love my Google Pixel as well. It automatically silenced the spam calls and I've stopped getting them.

[Anonymous]

I've had very good luck with NOMOROBO. Free for a landline. Maybe $1/month for a cell phone.

Blocks about 80% of the autodialers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I had this issue - my old cell number (which I've used for years for both personal and business) somehow ended up on a list of "businesses we can try to scam." I got nonstop calls for loan approvals, stamp machines, all sorts of crap.

I signed up with voip.ms and ported my number over to them (don't cancel your cell number first, let the number transfer). They made it really easy. I also picked up a new "home" phone line from them with a 202 area code. Had T-Mobile give me a new 202 cell number. Using voip.ms system, I directed all the calls to a voice greeting (paid someone on fiverr to record it) that tells people to press one for my cell, two for my home, or three for my cell. Pressing the right option forwards the call. Not pressing anything takes them to a voicemail box. Recordings are emailed to me.

I no longer get spam calls on my phone. None of these people will press a button, because it's all automated. They just go to the voicemail, which is emailed to me and promptly ignored.

I now give out the "home" number to people and have added frequent callers to a list that auto-forwards without the message. I don't give out my cell number.

r

Thank you for this post!! It's good to know that there is a practical solution if I get to that point!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Do you have an iPhone or Android? I have the original Google Pixel. We have two features for spam calls. One is a screen call feature that pops up for every call in between Accept and Decline. It plays an automated message asking the caller to say their name and why they're calling. I can see a transcript in real time of what they're saying and hit pre-formatted followup questions like 'Tell me more." NONE of the spam calls ever say anything. They just hang up.

The other feature is an automatic screen for every unknown or suspected spam number. The phone doesn't ring at all for those. It only rings if they say anything, and then it gives me the option to accept the call or respond with an automated message like "No thank you" or "Leave a voicemail and I'll call you back."
H
I haven't received a spam call in over a year.

i've got an iphone. This sounds like a workable solution! Thank you!

[Anonymous]

I hate the blank voicemails..I call it the clear it out 10 times a day. When I am at work I just do it at night but now it is really annoying.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I've had very good luck with NOMOROBO. Free for a landline. Maybe $1/month for a cell phone.

Blocks about 80% of the autodialers.

Good to know! Thanks! Maybe I'll try this with my landline first - and see how much it helps.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No solution. I have found that most of the calls don't leave messages though so that may ease your worries about vm. I want to share that I received a spam call yesterday on my Google Voice account that I use for my students. Nothing is safe from spam!

Thanks for commiserating with me! Unfortunately, all of these calls were leaving vms. 😤 Fortunately they've stopped. At one point though, they were coming about 10 minutes apart. Hope your spam call was just a one time thing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I hate the blank voicemails..I call it the clear it out 10 times a day. When I am at work I just do it at night but now it is really annoying.

Yeah, there's something awful about paying for a service that allows others to freely annoy you. :-/