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How to block unwanted phone calls that have the first few digits the same as mine?
- Thread starter hajime
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The way you can do this is with 3rd party call filtering apps, no advanced filtering built into the iPhone.
I was googling just now, searched for "iphone call blocking neighbor scam". The "Mr. Number" app by Hiya showed up and someone claimed they can make area code+3 digits blocking rule.
Your carrier could have such a blocking rule ability too but I doubt it. I have AT&T and they have Call Protect which you can enable and it supposedly filters spam calls but some still go through. I also use the block unknown numbers option built into iOS now, it sends numbers not in my contact list to voicemail instead of ringing.
I was googling just now, searched for "iphone call blocking neighbor scam". The "Mr. Number" app by Hiya showed up and someone claimed they can make area code+3 digits blocking rule.
Your carrier could have such a blocking rule ability too but I doubt it. I have AT&T and they have Call Protect which you can enable and it supposedly filters spam calls but some still go through. I also use the block unknown numbers option built into iOS now, it sends numbers not in my contact list to voicemail instead of ringing.
I remember seeing an app that blocked calls specifically like this (made to look like they're coming from you're area). I cannot for the life of me remember the name of it.
Normally it's about the car warranties/robo calls. But right now, I don't think that's the case as the number oddly coincide to a degree with yours.
Machines. Mostly from scammers these days. They send out a “this is a notice for your arrest/back taxes/student loans/computer has a virus/fraud purchase on Amazon” robocall, you press 1 to speak to a live representative, they connect you with scam call centers. They get you to buy gift cards or other payment methods, they’ve scammed you and most of the time can’t get the money back.
Re: the app comments...
Hiya app has a neighborhood spoofing block. Simple Call Blocker lets the user define a range of numbers, so can block 123-456-xxxx numbers.
Telco provided/Hiya/NomoRobo/etc apps maintain spam lists, so if the number is flagged in their database, can block automatically.
iOS, Silence Unknown Callers option.
iOS 15, Focus. Focus that allows only contacts to get through and add whatever apps are most important to get notifications from (minus Phone app). This will send spammers to VM and not get notifications re missed calls (Will show in the summary report at whatever interval you have set for frequency of reports).
I ran into a day a month or two ago where the robocaller would dial four times a minute every 10-20 minutes. Created a Focus to only allow family/friends through along with Calendar/Reminders, email, Messages. Was not bothered, and later in the day, guess the scammer's upstream feed got blocked by the telco as saw the log in call blocker app was no longer recording spam calls. Turn off the Focus to go bacl to normal.
Hiya app has a neighborhood spoofing block. Simple Call Blocker lets the user define a range of numbers, so can block 123-456-xxxx numbers.
Telco provided/Hiya/NomoRobo/etc apps maintain spam lists, so if the number is flagged in their database, can block automatically.
iOS, Silence Unknown Callers option.
iOS 15, Focus. Focus that allows only contacts to get through and add whatever apps are most important to get notifications from (minus Phone app). This will send spammers to VM and not get notifications re missed calls (Will show in the summary report at whatever interval you have set for frequency of reports).
I ran into a day a month or two ago where the robocaller would dial four times a minute every 10-20 minutes. Created a Focus to only allow family/friends through along with Calendar/Reminders, email, Messages. Was not bothered, and later in the day, guess the scammer's upstream feed got blocked by the telco as saw the log in call blocker app was no longer recording spam calls. Turn off the Focus to go bacl to normal.
Thank you! Those calls are so annoying and blocking one number does nothing because the spammers just pick another xxxx number to call from.
I can't silence unknown callers always because I frequently get legit calls from numbers not in my contact list, but like the idea of Focus that does that temporarily when I want.
Depending on your carrier, you may have access to a free filtering app. AT&T offers one that is very effective at pre-screening and dumping in-bound spam to your voicemail automatically. Most robocallers hang up after 2 or 3 rings or aren't coded to leave a message, 'though a few will leave messages asking you to call back on the number that came up via callerID.
I picked up the phone once which I shouldn't. The other side just hung up right away without saying anything. Then, unwanted calls continued. Of course, in the past, some calls said I committed such and such and I have to pay to avoid troubles.
You pretty much confirmed to the robs-callers your line is active.
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Using iOS to block unknown numbers as you’ve stated just sends to voicemail which in terms confirms the number is actively and uniquely used for other spam call numbers to reach you.
I’m perturbed that Apple “reinvented” the phone yet failed to this day to properly deal with this issue. For all we know some of these apps are reporting our numbers to a spam list DB ?
Still I’ll check out some of the suggestions.
Yeah, not happy as well about the state of things, but also get why there is no uber-nuke-it option.
Example: doctor's main number is 1234, but can be calling you from their 1235 extension. It's 1234 in Contacts, so gets through, but the other gets nuked, which might be REALLY bad. Sure, AI/Siri could maybe help with "recognizing" possible extensions, but guessing safer to play it safe in Apple's eyes.
Add in STIR/SHAKEN, the tools that are available with iPhone works well for me. Ten spam calls over the last week, only three got past call blocker and none chimed with Silence Unknown on.
I'm of the belief, no data to back it up, that it's ok to send the spam to vm. Yes, they are making note of the number, but in one's favor: goes straight to vm, noone picks up, waste of time and number is worthless when selling "verified" number lists to fellow spammers.
What has been an issue are the political text messages I've been getting the last month or so. A couple a day, tops, and they are going to Unknowns, so no chimes. Will get worse as the general election gets closer.
Apple can’t do anything about what happens to a phone call on the carrier side. If the phone rejects the call, the provider sends it to voicemail. So that’s why the unknown caller blocking option goes to voicemail, because the phone can’t tell the provider not to service the call at all.
You can however use apps like, as I said for AT&T it’s Call Protect, which works on the carrier side to detect a spam call is taking place and actually does block it from hitting voicemail, but only when it deems it to be spam. Every carrier has this nowadays for free so take advantage. Well not free for the premium version on AT&T but the basic version is free.
As far as I know the idea that if a number is in service at all it could be spammed with calls, well the thing is you can actually look up on the internet if a number is in service and which provider services it. That is a matter of public record. Combined with the fact that database leaks are a big source of phone numbers, if you’ve used any of hundreds of services in the last 10 years that have had massive database breaches, your phone number is out there.
But if you’re persistent and don’t answer unknown numbers then I think they get the message eventually. I’ve seen a decrease in spam calls recently as a result of both Call Protect and unknown number blocking built into iOS, but I know these things can come in waves.
You mentioned STIR/SHAKEN are those iOS apps?
Clear distinction here is CAN’T vs Will NOT.
1 iMessage works with carriers GGSN (data gateway) with your phone line to register or deregister with their service. iMessage cannot work without the carrier line being active in the very first place to register.
2 depending on your voicemail service if the line doesn’t connect to your phone it will goto voicemail. If the phone does ring and rejected (using standard GSM protocols) by action/inaction from you on the phone itself will goto voicemail. I suspect visual voicemail does something different (I’ve not have VVM as of yet).
3 Google has done this for the last 2 yrs where you can block outright were the call will not even initiate to your phone and thus no voicemail.
So telling me Apple cannot do this nor work with carriers is unbelievable. They already have to get iMessage working so there is no reason to believe carriers cannot work with Apple to block unregistered nor valid numbers to work.
There is a PTSN standard where phone lines with caller ID are supposed to be shared with mobile carriers and distributed to mobile phones. Seems here in Canada it’s broken between all our carriers (from a business Cisco PTSN based system to them where only the # is sent). I know this because I’ve seen this countless times at work and L3 team and management have worked with Telus on this and no resolution. The standard in the USA needs to be implemented here.
With such a standard, spoofed numbers will not be able to push a false number or caller ID to mobile carriers, effectively reducing rapid spam calls when 1 number is blocked and another calls in 30 seconds. I’ve too seen this countless times.
FYI I’m in Canada not in the USA and thus the AT&T app you’ve listed will not work for me nor for many others on these boards. Need to stop thinking all things Apple is USA only.
I have been dying for Apple to copy some of the call screening AI/features that Google has added to the Pixel.
STIR/SHAKEN: attempt to verify caller is legit. Get visual cue on caller id when verified.
en.m.wikipedia.org
STIR/SHAKEN - Wikipedia
Aha … Shaken, not stirredSTIR/SHAKEN: attempt to verify caller is legit. Get visual cue on caller id when verified.
STIR/SHAKEN - Wikipedia
This is what I was referring to in the second quoted post just below yours - so much appreciated. STIR is the standard I was referring to.
STIR/SHAKEN are protocols, meant to weed out caller ID spoofing.
Combating Spoofed Robocalls with Caller ID Authentication
Caller ID authorization is a new system aimed at combating illegal caller ID spoofing. Such a system is critical to protecting Americans from scam spoofed robocalls and would erode the ability of callers to illegally spoof a caller ID, which scam artists use to trick Americans into answering...
Visual voicemail as far as I can tell doesn't change how messages are received, it's just an alternate access method. Instead of calling a number to access your voicemail and using dial commands, your phone automatically downloads voicemails and displays it to you. It just requires a data connection to get the audio file (and carrier support, of course).
It does? Doesn't sound like it to me.
Use caller ID & spam protection - Phone app Help
When you make or get a call with caller ID and spam protection on, you can get information about callers or businesses outside your contacts or warnings about potential spam callers. To use caller I
support.google.com
- Optional: To block spam calls on your phone, turn on "Filter spam calls." You don't get missed call or voicemail notifications, but filtered calls are in your call history, and you can check your voicemail.
They can work with the carriers, but I was saying this doesn't (seem to) exist yet. Carriers and Apple and Google would have to come to an agreement on what to do. And there's also tons of legal work to go through. Yeah we all want spam calls blocked, but if it blocks a life-or-death call to someone, due to bugs or what-not, that could be bad.
I'm sure a lot of carriers worldwide have some kind of call filtering/blocking available to customers. Most carriers certainly don't want people to stop using phones entirely. But I could only speak of my experience with my carrier.FYI I’m in Canada not in the USA and thus the AT&T app you’ve listed will not work for me nor for many others on these boards. Need to stop thinking all things Apple is USA only.
I feel there's a misunderstanding here. If your phone is off it goes to voicemail. The carrier does this as part of the voicemail feature. If you don't take a call it gets sent to voicemail. What you're asking is that you can tell the carrier not to accept the call entirely but they only do that if you turn off voicemail. Yes they can work together to create an API to tell the carrier not to take the call entirely and they probably should. The solution today is to use these kinds of call blocking apps by the carrier because they can block calls but an iPhone can't block a call from being serviced today. Nor an Android as far as I can tell. So I advise of course for people to look into it, no matter their country.
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STIR/SHAKEN are protocols, meant to weed out caller ID spoofing.
Combating Spoofed Robocalls with Caller ID Authentication
Caller ID authorization is a new system aimed at combating illegal caller ID spoofing. Such a system is critical to protecting Americans from scam spoofed robocalls and would erode the ability of callers to illegally spoof a caller ID, which scam artists use to trick Americans into answering...www.fcc.gov
Visual voicemail as far as I can tell doesn't change how messages are received, it's just an alternate access method. Instead of calling a number to access your voicemail and using dial commands, your phone automatically downloads voicemails and displays it to you. It just requires a data connection to get the audio file (and carrier support, of course).
It does? Doesn't sound like it to me.
Use caller ID & spam protection - Phone app Help
When you make or get a call with caller ID and spam protection on, you can get information about callers or businesses outside your contacts or warnings about potential spam callers. To use caller Isupport.google.com
It looks like it just doesn't notify you of a voicemail, but the voicemail, if left, may still be there. If you have visual voicemail in the phone app it may be able to preemptively delete it too.
- Optional: To block spam calls on your phone, turn on "Filter spam calls." You don't get missed call or voicemail notifications, but filtered calls are in your call history, and you can check your voicemail.
They can work with the carriers, but I was saying this doesn't (seem to) exist yet. Carriers and Apple and Google would have to come to an agreement on what to do. And there's also tons of legal work to go through. Yeah we all want spam calls blocked, but if it blocks a life-or-death call to someone, due to bugs or what-not, that could be bad.
I'm sure a lot of carriers worldwide have some kind of call filtering/blocking available to customers. Most carriers certainly don't want people to stop using phones entirely. But I could only speak of my experience with my carrier.
I feel there's a misunderstanding here. If your phone is off it goes to voicemail. The carrier does this as part of the voicemail feature. If you don't take a call it gets sent to voicemail. What you're asking is that you can tell the carrier not to accept the call entirely but they only do that if you turn off voicemail. Yes they can work together to create an API to tell the carrier not to take the call entirely and they probably should. The solution today is to use these kinds of call blocking apps by the carrier because they can block calls but an iPhone can't block a call from being serviced today. Nor an Android as far as I can tell. So I advise of course for people to look into it, no matter their country.
No misunderstanding of how calls work on my part. You’ve just reiterated exactly what I’ve stated how calls coming from the carrier works.
Do you know the original command codes that GSM supported?! Many have been removed or disabled by carriers in an effort to take in more service revenues. Case in point:
You make a call (landline = PTSN, or cell based), to number #1, that number #1 is set to forward all calls (or by condition), to number #2 which then calls or is forwarded to your cellular gsm based number (this doesn’t matter if you’re on GSM/GPRS/EDGE/USMT/LTE/4G/5G).
Currently only the number #2 is shown as your caller display. No spoofing needed but if you block number #2 you’ll never know the original caller.
There was a standard GSM dial code you could make that would tell the network, which is direct tot he network switch to report the original dialing number to you. Rogers originally was on TSMA before acquiring Microcell Networks (Fido) and making their network gsm/goes base back in 2001 (I know this intimately as I worked for Rogers during this transition and tested this network months before available to the public. The code works right before launching to the public. Then roger spent the next year across CANADA rebranding the Fido towers to Rogers and the switches programming changed under Ericsson’s hardware and collaboration (something Ericsson would loathe but under contract be liable to abide, being one of the for-fathers of gsm).
This basic set of codes being disabled helps spoofed numbers and spam callers. I’m hoping a lot of legal change reverts to fixing this in the future.