Cell Phone w/Unlimited Call Blocking

2oldman wrote:
Jees.. it's illegal to spam a cell phone. Have you reported this? - and I don't mean the DNCL.

Is there a problem just looking at who's calling and not answering? That should discourage junk calls over time.

Sadly that may not always be the case but.

SMART PHONES (Mine is an android) seem to have fewer issues here plus I have an APP on my smart phone that used a different (nastier) type of blocking.

If I block it on the phone, then it goes to voice mail or if they hang up they do not get charged with a call and it does not apear on my records.

The Caller ID app i have picks up the call, then hangs it up, so it does NOT go to voice mail, and they get charged for a connected call and it appears on my bill (zero minutes, though in truth I have unlimited) and thus I have a legal record of it.

I have a company that spent most of last summer spamming me, I finally tracked them down and asked for payment under Title 47 (Section 227 USC) and they refused citing a Michigan law that lets them cold call me to set up a face to face.. When I get back to MI Im going to take it up with the courts because they also violated several other lines of that section, but .. Well, Will report on progress when there is some to report on. I have high hopes. THey owe me a new engine at least. (What they owe = more than engine replacement)

I also set nuisance numbers to a silent/no vibration ringtone, plus putting only a few contacts on my favorites list so they are the only ones that will ring through. Of course I still get notification of the missed call and any voice mail but at least it's silent.

Kemahsabe wrote:
I guess I just don't understand the problem. It's a simple matter to answer the call and deal with it.

And I don't understand why you would answer a call from an 800 number rather than just ignore it.

5thwheeleroldman wrote:
Well, this may be what finally makes me trade my cheap flip phone for a smart phone. Sounds like I could block everyone but my relatives, friends, doctors, etc. which is what I want to do.

You could. I don't know why some people get these calls and some don't, like me. Is there something you're doing to encourage them?

5thwheeleroldman wrote:
we got on every no call list the government has and without my call blocker, I would be getting 4 or 5 spam calls per day, at least. Apparently the government can't enforce their laws on spam calls.

No, and it's a waste of time for them to even try.

bob_nestor wrote:

5thwheeleroldman wrote:
Is there such a thing as a cell phone that can block unlimited cell numbers, and area codes? My current flip phone can only block about 30 numbers, which is becoming inadequate with the growing spam calls.

I use an app called Call Control. It's available for Android, iPhone and Blackberry.

Here

I would NOT install Call Control on my phone. In the case of the Call Control Android app, if you click on install, the Android OS shows you the permissions required to install an app, and Call Control wants access to almost everything on your phone. Such apps are mining your phone for data and selling it, and they should be avoided. If you click install on some of the other Android apps to block calls, you will find many of them only ask for the permissions / access that they actually need.

I guess I just don't understand the problem. It's a simple matter to answer the call and deal with it.

If it's someone I want to talk to I avoid having to listen to their VM and call them back. Maybe they're not available so I have to inconvenience them with a voicemail and/or call again later.

If it's someone I don't want to talk to I hang up, or tell them to take me off their list and then hang up.

Most robocalls have an opt-out option. I use it. Don't know if it works.

For many years now, I've been able to control this through my account on sprint.com. It has nothing to do with what model of phone I'm using. I used it to restrict my kids phone to only family and certain friends. The settings were available for each and every line on my plan. Is this not available with all carriers?

30 phone numbers OR 30 contacts

on my phone each contact can have multiple numbers home, cell, work, fax

i have contacts labeled spam 1, spam 2 wrong 1, wrong 2 .. etc
each contact has 4 or 5 numbers all these contacts are set to silent ringer

when i get a NEW spam or wrong number call
i add it to a position in the last open appropriate contact
when that contact is full, i create a new contact
its no different than adding it to a block list.. slightly more button pushes
but the listed is limited only by the number of contacts
my phone can hold 500 contacts..thats 2500 numbers
since i have less than 100 valid contacts i can have 2000 silent numbers if needed
currently about 100 silent numbers in the spam and wrong number contacts

Well, this may be what finally makes me trade my cheap flip phone for a smart phone. Sounds like I could block everyone but my relatives, friends, doctors, etc. which is what I want to do.

We have a device for our land line that does all the blocking for us. It's really great, but wouldn't work for a cell phone though. Speaking of which, we got on every no call list the government has and without my call blocker, I would be getting 4 or 5 spam calls per day, at least. Apparently the government can't enforce their laws on spam calls. Seems like our government wants to control everything, but really controls nothing ---- except when I get a speeding ticket or fail to pay my income tax. Somehow they always get around to enforcing those laws.

Samsung smart phones have Blocking mode. Only calls you designate ring through. You could "Unblock" all of your Contact list. Others can still leave a voicemail which would eventually get to you. I have Google Voice setup as my default voicemail client. I don't call in to receive voicemails. They arrive as email. The emails have a rough visual voicemail and audio download. I'm sure other Smartphones have a similar setup.

I believe there are a couple of smartphone apps that allow blacklisting using wildcards, which should allow you to block an entire area code.