One of the problems with reporting phone numbers as spam sources is that legitimate numbers are commonly spoofed. Although it hasn’t happened recently, a couple of years ago I received a spate of angry calls from people who received spam calls from what appeared to be my number. Of course, it was just a spammer pretending to be me.
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I have not had problems with false accusations of phone spamming, but I did have serious problems when SiteGround installed a spam filter that bounced email from my clients as spam, costing me a few weeks last year to move my email elsewhere as well as costing me business.
“Unknown number” can mean one of two things, depending on the specific context. It can mean a number not in one’s Contacts, or it can mean a number that is not transmitting a Caller ID. The option to “Silence Unknown Callers” uses the former definition. If your phone displays “Unknown number” when a call comes in, that’s the latter.
The sense in which “every phone number is ‘known’” is that every line has a number assigned to it by the telco that manages and services it, and the telco (and, presumably, the person or entity holding the lease on the line) knows that number. But if it’s not sending a CID, then it is “unknown” to any recipient.
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This is one of the core issues I have noticed for many years. The automated dialing is obvious when they use similar numbers to yours (ie. same area code and prefix, leaving the last 4 digits as unique) and then you get a call from your own number.
I have rarely received repeat calls from the same number and not long ago when I actively saved / scrutinized inbound numbers for a while and began to block some of the repeat offenders, they sometimes just changed the last 4 digits in the same area code and prefix (10,000 possible combinations).
Number blocking only really works when a legitimate caller is phoning you repeatedly.
The upcoming xOS 26 Phone feature sounds interesting, but it won’t stop the creative scammers and marketers, and may cause important calls (ie. medical) from getting through if they don’t have time/patience to wait.
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Exactly. I use Google Voice’s very similar call screening feature on a less frequently used number. I notice that a reasonable number of legitimate callers simply hang up rather then deal with the added wait. They’ll often text me or email me afterward, but often with a bit of irritation for the inconvenience. They generally understand when I explain why I use call screening, but I’m not sure it’s worth the mutual annoyance.
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My sincere thanks to everyone who has taken part in this discussion and offered suggestions and insights. If you have more to say, keep right on doing so. TidBITS readers are the best.
I think I will switch to only getting rings from callers in my Contacts list, which will still leave other callers the option to leave voice mails, which I can check later. That’s not a perfect solution, but it should hopefully lessen the annoyance of my iPhone ringing constantly with spam/scam calls.
It still puzzles me why the whole phone industry (at every level) hasn’t made solving this issue a top priority. Imagine if every time you drove a car, one of its tires would blow out. And this was happening to cars from all makes and models. Would anyone stand for that?
I was reading today about folding iPhones likely rolling out next year for roughly $2K a pop. Why would anyone pay such a price for something that mostly sends you spam calls constantly. And that’s true of cell phones in general. Clearly, the marketing concentrates on the sizzle and the steak is too often a “we’ll get to that later” matter.
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Because it doesn’t cost them anything to ignore it. The US federal government has not enacted any policies holding telcos, phone manufacturers, and other companies in the chain responsible for not seriously addressing the issue, and I’m not aware of any other nation that has done so, either.
The only thing hurt so far has been reputations, and that’s across the entire industry, so everyone’s hurt equally. Few people will factor susceptibility to junk into their decision of a phone or a carrier, in part because it doesn’t really matter which way you go. The problem is a fundamental flaw in the switching network itself, so by connecting to the call routing system, all carriers and users are equally at risk.
Avoiding phone calls and texts altogether is impractical for most people. These are two of the primary person-to-person communication tools available, and it’s expected that every business can receive calls and almost every individual can be reached by phone or text. Opting out altogether risks cutting oneself off from one’s friends and family, except for those in close physical proximity.
So ultimately, without any significant consequences for not addressing the problem, the industry doesn’t have much incentive to be proactive about it. Everyone’s waiting for a government to tell them what they have to do.
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In addition to the lack of action by multiple actors, I think it’s important to remember that spammers, both legitimate (such as political parties) and legally dubious (g-e-t V I A G R A from Canada!!!), would stop spamming if most people ignored their messages. As long as enough donations and purchases are made to generate profits, everybody will continue to be bombarded with junk texts, emails, and phone calls.
Scams, on the other hand, won’t ever go away. Fear and greed are very powerful emotions that will always be exploited by criminals.
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Two quick thoughts:
- A significant market segment of cell phone owners don’t use their devices to make or receive voice calls much. That’s the reason why carriers barely mention “minutes” in their advertising and no longer make talk-time a key feature of their monthly plans. Data is the name of the game now. It’s a lot easier to not be too bothered by junk calls when you’re not in the habit of answering calls right away.
- A cheap phone will receive the same amount of spams and scams as an expensive phone. But the cheap phone will have a terrible camera, limited capacity for apps, and a horrible screen.
I have a landline that I use all the time when I am home. The spam calls I get use my area code (503) and list a city in Oregon, such as Portland OR most of the time. And they use a discontinued number I have used a well-moderated voice to answer, “This is a recording. This number is no longer in service. Please remove it from your phone list.” I say the same thing over and over until they hang up. It does work most of the time. However, I have discovered that when I use the Google App for questions, etc…, I receive MORE spam calls. Now I have started to let the phone ring or pick up and hang up immediately. And woe to spammer who calls me before 8:00 am! Verizon has a special number for text spams and I do report them. Comcast is getting better for spam emails, but I do find legitimate emails there and check it several times a day.
The fundamental problem is that it’s very hard to do telephone spam blocking right. Blocking calls that aren’t in your Contacts list can cut off the elderly or other people who don’t bother – or don’t know how – to set up a contact list. Some people – often younger mobile phone users – never leave messages because they assume the people they call will just look at their incoming call list. The list goes on endlessly. At least the whole message can be scanned in email spam, but even there there are false positives.
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It also cuts off lots of legitimate calls.
For example, when I take my car in for servicing, the “your car is ready” callback doesn’t come from the shop’s main phone number (which is in my contacts), but from some other line (someone’s desk extension?). Sometimes the call comes from the tech’s personal cell phone.
If I block/ignore everything not from my contacts, then I won’t get these calls until I check my voice mail. And if I go to check my voice mail after every such call, then that pretty much defeats the purpose.
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I remember what it felt like when spam destroyed Usenet. Maybe phone numbers are next.
I’ve been using the free tier of Nomorobo for many years now. I never even have to think about it. I can’t remember the last time that I received a spam call.
Nomorobo
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Thanks for the tip. Can you tell me more about the Nomorobo free tier? I see nothing about that in the App Store info. It refers to a free trial and then an auto renew sub through iTunes, which strikes me as a mild warning bell. There also seems to be a Nomorobo Max version. I never jump into any solution without researching it first. Are there any aspects of the app that you’ve found annoying or disappointing? Has anyone else in the TB Talk forum reading this used this app? Just curious.
I used to have Nomorobo for a VOIP landline and it worked OK for that but spam calls would still get through just like any of these services since spam numbers keep changing and Nomorobo uses a database to block those numbers and that changes all the time. It was free for landlines but when I looked into the one for iPhones, there was a charge but maybe that has changed. I get very little spam on my iPhone so not an issue at this time.
Currently, I have a call blocker device for my landline system made by Panasonic which also has a database of spam numbers built into the device as well as the ability to block ones that come in that you know or suspect are spam. This device has cut down considerably on spam calls for me so that is another option for landlines (whether they are the POTS ones, VOIP or cellular devices like Home Phone Base).
https://www.amazon.com/Panasonic-Landline-One-Touch-Bilingual-KX-TGA710/dp/B07V6MZCLR
The Panasonic ones are much cheaper on eBay. You still will hear one ring when a call is blocked similar to Nomorobo.
Sorry, Nomorobo is still free for VOIP lines, but there is no free tier for iPhones anymore.
More info:
If you don’t like Nomorobo, there are other similar services:
YouMail
Truecaller
RoboKiller
Mr. Number
Hiya
As to why Apple doesn’t provide such a service, I’ve noticed that Apple is reticent to block what might conceivably be construed as a legitimate business, even if that business annoys potential customers. To be blunt, I think that Apple wants to avoid being sued. So, for instance, while the Macintosh OS does a pretty good job of blocking verifiably malicious software (i.e. malware), a very glaring omission is the Mac’s complete lack of protection from simple adware that does nothing malicious and only serves up ads.
I’m on AT&T, and they provide a similar service free with my plan. You need to download their app, ActiveArmor, and activate the SPAM and fraud call blocking. It’s quite effective. They do try to upsell you on additional features, but the free tier works great.
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I have a simple technique that work for me. I have almost all people who might contact me in my Contacts on my phone. There is a setting for the phone that blocks all calls from people NOT in my Contacts. I added a message requesting callers to leave a message and I’ll return their “legitimate call”. I have removed the block when I’mm expecting a call from someone not in my Contacts. Give it a try, it’s free to try.
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The problem with the ATT app as well as others is that someone can report a number as spam and it could be a legitimate business that someone has a grievance with. This happened in my case as a number from my car dealer was in the ATT block list. So while these apps are free and work fairly well, I ended up dropping them since legitimate calls can end up being blocked.
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