Why Blocking Spam Numbers Doesn’t Work (And What Actually Does)
Spam numbers can be a nightmare to deal with, especially daily. You hope that by giving your number out to a company, it’s not going to get distributed elsewhere, but unfortunately, it often does.
Despite privacy laws being in place, getting spam calls is part and parcel of owning a phone. However, to minimize the amount of spam calls you get, it’s helpful to know the effective solutions required to help silence unknown callers.
It’s good to know that simply trying to block these spam numbers doesn’t always work effectively enough. This guide will take a more in-depth look at how spam numbers end up calling your phone and how to stop them from ringing you on a regular basis.
What are spam numbers?
A spam number is an unwanted and often fraudulent incoming call or text. It’s often flagged by carriers as being potential spam or scam, likely due to the suspicious, high-volume, or reported activity.
The calls themselves are typically used for phishing, scams, or advertising. There are key aspects of spam numbers worth knowing about.
Flagging reasons
Carriers use machine learning to help detect unusual patterns. From thousands of calls in a short period of time to identifying numbers previously reported by other users.
Risks
Answering these calls will confirm that your number is active and leads to more frequent scam calls as a result. This can increase the risk of financial fraud and identity theft.
Appearance
A lot of carriers now flag these calls as being ‘spam risk’ or ‘scam likely’ when they ring your phone. This will show up on your screen as the incoming call comes in.
Cause
The result of spam numbers often comes from your phone number being sold by data brokers or if it’s leaked in data breaches.
Why doesn’t blocking work for individual spam numbers?
Blocking individual spam numbers is unfortunately ineffective due to scammers now using VoIP technology that instantly rotates numbers, spoofs local caller IDs, and employs automated ‘wa dialers’ that render the single-block actions useless.
Let’s look a little further into why blocking them on your phone doesn’t really work well enough to reduce the frequency of spam calls.
Number rotation and spoofing
Scammers will constantly change the numbers they use or mimic local/trusted numbers, which makes individual blocks futile.
Automated dialers
Bots will call thousands of numbers in sequence and not care if one specific number is blocked.
VoIP technology
The use of Voice over Internet Protocol allows for a cheap and rapid generation of new callers.
With all of these advanced methods used by the scammers, it gets harder to block these spam calls more successfully.
What methods actually work for preventing spam calls?
There are a number of methods that are proven to be effective when it comes to preventing as many spam calls from coming through to your phone as possible.
- Enable network-level protection
When it comes to network-level protection, you’ll want to look at using your carrier’s built-in, free spam protection tools, such as T-Mobile’s Scam Shield, AT&T’s Active Armor, etc.
There are lots of different network-level protection options available, especially when you need to protect from spam calls, which happen all too often.
Network providers also have a responsibility to provide great customer service, and so if they’re not diligent with their efforts to stop spam calls and fraudulent attempts made on their customers, then customers may look elsewhere for more support and security.
- Use smartphone settings
Your smartphone will likely have the appropriate settings to send non-contact calls directly to your voicemail. If it’s a genuine call, then anyone who wants to leave you a message via your voicemail will do so. The spam calls will likely drop out once they hit voicemail, meaning you don’t have to deal with any incoming, unwanted calls.
- Third-party apps
It’s worthwhile installing apps like Truecaller, RoboKiller, and Nomorobo, which all help to maintain databases of known spam numbers. As a result, by having these apps available on your phone, you’ll hopefully be able to reduce spam calls significantly.
- Register on Do Not Call lists
Register your phone number with national registries such as donotcall.gov to help reduce legitimate telemarketing calls from coming in.
- Screen unknown calls
There are other services like Google’s Call Screen to have the phone assistant ask for the caller’s purpose before you pick it up. Of course, be aware that scammers will lie regarding the call’s purpose to get through to you.
Additional tips to consider
There are a few additional tips to consider when it comes to preventing the frequency of spam calls coming through to your phone.
For example, when it comes to answering phone calls in general, if you don’t recognize the number calling you, then chances are, if you’re not expecting any calls, it’s probably a scam.
You should avoid answering, as answering will confirm that your number is still active, and that can cause more calls to come through as a result.
If you get a scam call, as much as it might feel enticing to do so, it’s good not to engage with automated messages or live agents. They may well use your voice to then commit identity fraud and other scams as a result of you talking to them. Hang up immediately instead of saying anything at all. No need for a hello or goodbye either.
Try to avoid giving your phone number out online and to people in general. The fewer people who have your phone number, the less likely it is that your phone number will be sold on and used by scammers.
Blocking spam numbers is incredibly beneficial and something you definitely want to do where you can. However, it’s not always easy. Fortunately, you’ve got plenty of options available in the form of useful services from your carriers as well as apps that can help keep spam calls at bay.