Spam calls are some of the phone challenges people have to deal with every now and then. Your phone number ceased to be for communication between family, friends and your choice list of callers. Spammers and telemarketers are now becoming the order of the day for any phone number owner. These some of the annoying things happening in our society today and despite government regulation, spammers won’t take heed any of it.
Even with such a situation, you will have to find ways to reclaim your phone before you kill it. Here are some of the options to try out.
Stopping Spam Calls
Here is how to get started with the procedure:
1. Get listed in the Do Not Call Registry
Ensure your number is listed in the Do Not Call Registry run by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). You can do this online or by dialing 1-888-382-1222. It shouldn’t take you long before you can register your number on this platform. This should be able to stop the unwanted calls in the first month. However, it is important to note that the registry will only take care of telemarketing and sales calls who usually take these matters seriously due to the heavy fines involved. This is because there will be a group of calls especially from charitable organizations and from the political arena that will keep coming through.
Anyone calling you from the telemarketing services after you have signed up with the Do Not Call Registry should be reported through 1-888-382-1222 or the website. Don’t even interact with the caller. All you need is to hang up once you see it.
2. Get help from your carrier
Another option to seek defense is through your phone carrier service. Search for spam controls on the company’s website to establish what is available.
Most of the telecommunication companies can provide you with tools to help you block anonymous calls that you are not interested in. All the nuisance calls will be blocked and this could be at the network level and beyond. There are also other options where you can manually flag off other unwanted callers. If you suspect an illegitimate call coming through some tools will show a “suspected spam warning” to alert you.
3. Use your smartphone’s internal call blocking apps
While the FTC will be of help to some extent, you can make use of these tools available on your phone to get help as well. The iOS 10 mobile operating system of Apple supports all call blocking apps. Therefore, you can make use of services that come with third-party mobile apps. Recently developed gadgets like the new Samsung Galaxy phone automatically flags off spam calls through an already inbuilt feature. You can as well buy this handset to get rid of spam calls.
The technology used here by Samsung is known as Hiya. The app can freely be downloaded for Android and iOS platform regardless of the type of phone you got. It can include context to your unidentified numbers as well as texts to help you establish the person on the other end. Most importantly, a potential scam along with fraud calls will be flagged up hence giving you the protection you need. Again, nuisance calls can also be reported from within the app.
4. Use a reverse phone lookup app
Stop Spam Calls with USPhoneBook: Free Reverse Phone Lookup App – This app is available both the Android and iOS platforms. It alerts you to potential unsolicited and fraudulent calls prior to answering them. Unknown callers will be identified from a central database with contact details and work with SMS as well.
Conclusion
There are a number of options for you to deal with spam calls. To engage in a smooth and well-coordinated process, start off with the government agencies such as the Do Not Call Registry operated by the FTC. Once you have laid this foundation, you can now move on to other options to deal with spammers who don’t care about the government regulations.
Your telecommunication service company can be of great help in providing tools for blocking unwanted calls. Still, you can make use of third-party mobile apps to block calls and texts from spam callers without the need of having to kill your phone.