How to Silence Unknown and Spam Calls

Imagine you’re in the middle of an incredibly important task. It could be a work presentation, or school report, or any other personal project. You’re completely focused on the task when suddenly, you hear your phone ring or feel it vibrate due to an incoming call. Your concentration is already affected, but when you actually pick up the phone, you find out it’s a spam call.

Not only is this the most annoying thing ever, but spam calls can also be incredibly dangerous. So, here’s why you need to block unknown numbers and how you can silence unknown and spam calls on your phone.

What are Spam Calls and Why are They So Dangerous?

Spam calls are basically calls that are inappropriate or not relevant to you at all. Most of the time, these spam callers obtain and call your number without permission. Similarly, they don’t just target you but call hundreds and thousands of other people as well.

As annoying and infuriating as these calls are, there’s not much you can do about them as these numbers or callers can’t be reported.

There are two types of spam calls: the legal ones and the illegal ones. Legal spam calls include calls from legitimate organizations and businesses that are providing necessary consumer information, conducting market research, or are cold-calling as part of their marketing efforts. What makes these calls legal is that they are required to identify themselves and provide their number at the beginning of their call.

Illegal spam calls are what you should be really looking out for, as these can be quite dangerous. These callers don’t have the best intentions and basically try to get something from you, such as your information. They don’t really follow the communication laws, and that’s what makes them so dangerous.

These calls can be from robots, also known as robocalls, or from actual people. They will either try to sell you something or claim to give you something, and in return, ask for your credit card information and details. Once they get this information, they can steal your money and vanish.

One of the most common forms of these illegal spam calls is the IRS phone spam. Some signs to identify spam calls are that they will claim that you’ve won a prize or offer you products that you never opted to buy or hear about.

Therefore, the only thing you can do at your end is to set up some call-blocking measures on your phone.

How to Silence Unknown and Spam Calls?

Fortunately, most phone manufacturers now include some call-blocking features in their latest phone models. Now, these won’t be able to filter and block all the spam calls out there, but they will make some difference as you can block some numbers.

Another thing to note is that these phones usually use some form of artificial intelligence and rely on your contacts, messages, and call history to determine which calls to block and which not to block. So, sometimes, it can confuse a legitimate call that is not from your contacts or call history to be a spam call.

Other than that, this the easiest thing you can do to silence unknown and spam calls without spending any additional money or effort.

· On Your iPhone

If you own an iPhone, follow these steps to block unknown numbers and spam calls:

Step 1: Go to Settings.

Step 2: Scroll down till you find the Phone tab and then tap on it.

Step 3: In your Phone settings, you will see an option for blocking spam calls as Silence Unknown Callers. Tap on this option.

Step 4: Tap on the toggle to turn this feature on.

With these four easy steps, you can easily turn on or turn off this feature anytime to block or receive all calls on your iPhone.

· On Your Android Phone

If you own an Android phone, follow these steps to block calls from unknown numbers and illegal spammers:

Step 1: Go to your Phone app, which is usually on the bottom of the home screen.

Step 2: Look for the three dots in the Phone app. This can be either at the top or bottom corner of the screen. Tap on it to reveal another menu.

Step 3: From this menu, tap on the Settings option.

Step 4: Look for the option Block Numbers and tap on it.

Step 5: Tap on the toggle to turn this feature on.

· Third-Party Apps

Alternatively, if you feel that your phone’s built-in call-blocking feature isn’t screening as many calls as you’d like, you can install a third-party app. These apps are specifically designed to recognize spam calls and block them. They will maintain a list of numbers that are marked as spam and prevent them from calling.

How to Stop Spammers and Unknown Numbers from Calling You in the First Place?

Most illegal spam callers usually obtain your number through illegal ways as well, so there’s not much you can do there. However, other than those, you can take a few steps to stop spammers and unknown numbers from getting your number in the first place.

You can do this by removing or making sure your number is not listed on any public domain or website. Hide your phone number from your social media profiles. Don’t give your number to any registries or add your number to the ‘Do Not Call’ Registry.

Conclusion

No doubt, these constant calls from unknown numbers and robots are very annoying and frustrating. However, considering how fast they are spreading, it can be hard to block them completely out of your life. What you can do, though, is reduce the frequency of these calls. You can use the call-blocking features in your phone and follow the steps we’ve outlined to silence unknown and spam calls.

Besides that, however you decide to deal with these unknown numbers, try not to pick up any of these calls that make it through. More importantly, never give out any personal information to unknown numbers over a call, regardless of what they say.