I am sure, All or some of us are getting a lot of spam or robo calls. Want to check within the forum what is the best option to overcome these calls, for landlines and smartphones… FCC has for long debated and trying to get regulations in place but Consumers still suffer to date with these calls… What are options to overcome these…
Spam / Robo / Marketing Calls - How to avoid these?
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I turn my ringer off and just use vibrate unless I know I have calls I need to answer. and Verizon and Samsung have features in place to block or list calls they feel are scam/fraud calls.
There are also free and paid apps that help combat them. On average I get 8 to 10 calls a day from spam calls. One of the older ladies I work was tricked by one and lost a ton of money.
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Don’t pick from unknown numbers 
problem solved
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I use the Verizon Caller ID app which is supposed to flag spam, but still get lot of spams.
Oh man I love talking to those people!
The one guy got really really mad when I asked if I could bring my pet with me on the vacation I had won. Everything was fine until I mentioned little robby was the runt of the litter of his kangaroo family.
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Have tried that, but missed some appointments because these use private number or toll free. I have Google voice, but It’s mostly home line forwarded. Issue is more for cell phone.
Samsung premium phones have pre-installed software to warn you off calls … but not fool proof.
I’ve registered in the UK with TPS … Telephone Preferential Service. It is meant to tell spam companies not to call you, but doesn’t stop them all, some still get through, but not as bad without signing up (can also do for postal service also MPS, but postmen do t care a d still drop it through your letterbox.)
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None of the sw based solutions are foolproof. Remember most of these robo calls are made using sw.
There is a FCC do not call registry in US, registered about 2 years back… But kept receiving calls. These robo callers do not honor these registeries.
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agree, Software can only do so much. There are talks for authenticated calls by carriers - TMobile and many more, nothing will move until there is some law which mandates it. This will only mean more spam and disturbing calls.
It is horrible in the USA, the bastards.
So what I have learned is that Google Voice is doing a better at filtering robo calls so I only give out Google Voice number for people. I have it phone my phone and web (Hangouts) so if my phone rings but my laptop doesn’t ring I know its a junk call.
I block the caller.
Another method which is more severe is only let incoming calls from your address book, then people you don’t know go to voicemail and then add them your address book.
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That is the only route left for me now, need to use my GV number as main number, and forward to cell. This spam was fine (no other words that I could find) to some extent till September last year… Suddenly something changed… the frequency has increased since then. Nowadays i am in two minds whether to answer a call or not. Lot of calls from my local area code.
I pond-hop frequently USA/UK, have done for > 20 years so I keep USA and UK phone numbers.
I have in effect 7 phone numbers. I have in USA ATT, T-Mobile, an ATT MVNO and Google Voice and in UK 2 Sipgate numbers and a O2 MVNO (Giffgaff) which ring a SIP VOIP app.
I only give out the GV number and program it to call the appropriate real number to match the device in my hand, whether its my smartwatch, phone, tablet, laptop, etc. You can not really know where I am physically other than audio lag if its going over Atlantic.
ATT is currently receiving the most robo calls. Never get any robo calls within UK. T-Mobile used to be bad but is better now.
There are various guides if you want to use the address book method instead. I tried it, it did work but I need my phone for work and blocking people who I didn’t know was just leaving an horrible 1st impression.
I don’t know how Google Voice is doing such a good job but I wish ATT would copy their method.
The caller is usually the same first 6 digits as my number and random last 4 digits.
Now I think of it, what I could do is only accept calls from Google Hangouts and block all phone calls but that mean all calls are VOIP?
I think this is a scourge and wish the telcos would do a better job of blocking them. It must be obvious to them its a robo call as the caller is randomly ringing around and it would only take a few successful calls for the telco to know its a scammer? Google is able to do it, why not the telco?
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I never do lol. Only if they call at least 3 times 
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Define “unknown”.
In my case they show as as real phone numbers, from people I don’t know. I would like a more intelligent call screening method if anyone has one. The most common robo number has the same 6 initial digits as mine.
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It is neighborhood spam where the First 6 digits are same as your area and then last 4 digits are changed. I avoid lot of spam calls, still answer some of them, not sure which ones are spam or robo
Attaching some of calls I missed, these left some wierd language voicemails… these are 100% spam or robo or scam calls
Unknown- a number I don’t have a contact for, or haven’t seen before.
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I get these unknown calls where there is no number shown at all.
When I get these calls I let my phone go to voicemail. If no message is left, I assume it’s a sales call and block the number. Some times before blocking the number i send the following text.
Received a call from this number and I don’t recognize it. Who’s calling.
If no response is sent within 5 or 10 minutes I block the number.
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