Tired of incessant telemarketing calls?

[AARPLynne]

Tired of incessant telemarketing calls? You aren’t alone. Complaints to the Federal Trade Commission average 190,000 a month. If you’ve added all of your phone numbers to the National Do Not Call Registry, you might be wondering why you still get so many telemarketing calls. One reason is that some entities are allowed to call — charities, surveys, political groups and debt collectors, for example. But another reason is that many of these calls, up to half, may be scam calls. And we all know scammers don’t first check the National Do Not Call Registry before targeting us. Nevertheless, there are some things you can do to help keep these calls at bay.

How it Works

• The Federal Trade Commission manages the National Do Not Call Registry, 1‑888‑382‑1222, which is intended to stop unwanted sales calls; it’s free, and you can add all of your numbers to it.
• Your registration does not expire.
• Legitimate companies are not permitted to call you if you’re on the registry unless you’ve recently done business with them or if you’ve given them written permission to call you.
• If legitimate telemarketers call a number on the National Do Not Call Registry and don’t otherwise have permission, they are susceptible to stiff fines from the Federal Communications Commission, so most legitimate companies will not break the rules.

What you should know

• If your number is on the National Do Not Call Registry and you’re still besieged by calls, they are probably scam calls.
• If you answer a scam call, the longer you stay on the line, the “hotter” your number is in the buying and selling of phone lists. Even though you may want to engage to teach them a lesson or waste the scammer’s time, it’s not worth it.

[AARPLynne]

Sharing another resource that may be of interest. It explains why robocalls are at an all time high, and discusses what the FTC is doing about it. fine. Additionally, sharing a recent AARP article about how to stop Robocalls. 

[AARPLynne]

Wow, @RolandH72755, that's such a savvy approach to combating unwanted calls. Good for you!

[anofziger17]

@RolandH72755 Thank you for sharing this tip for other community members. Since we know scammers are not following the rules of the DNC list we have to be our own advocate. My best advice is don't pick up the phone unless you absolutely know who is calling, and put your contacts in your phone so you can identify them, similar to your solution. We all need to share our best practices so we can fight these scammers together, so I appreciate you posting this. Thank you, AMY

[RolandH72755]

Here's a link to an article for those unfortunate enough to own an idiot phone . . . errr I mean iPhone.

https://www.techbout.com/allow-calls-only-from-known-contacts-on-iphone-38776/

Aparently if you turn on Do Not Disturb it will only allow calls from your contact list to get through.

According to this article

https://www.techwalla.com/articles/block-calls-samsung-cell-phone

some Samsung phones have the same ability to block all calls which aren't in your contact list.

[RolandH72755]

The Do Not Call List is a joke. Really just a place for scammers to get legitimate phone numbers to call offering scams.

The absolute best thing I ever did was buy this Sonim XP Bolt stick phone on eBay. Cost around $50 and accepts the AT&T SIM that Consumer Cellular will sell you. Too bad it is only 3G and might quick working next year. I don't text or surf the Web or any other thing on my phone. It's a phone meant for calls only.

At any rate, I was constantly annoyed by phone scams. My number has been on the DNCL for years and was even renewed. Nothing stopped "Weeendoze Company" from calling about "a virus they discovered on my computer" or the "IRS" calling or any of the other hundred plus phone scams out there.

At any rate, I hope this picture is clear enough.

Allow Contacts

When I set the phone to "Allow Contacts" all other incoming calls are routed directly to voice mail without the phone even ringing. It does light up but no vibrate or ring.

So far the only annoying part is the BT45-TOY I had installed in my 2006 Toyota Avalon for handsfree Bluetooth calls. It appears the "light up" portion also initiates Bluetooth connection to that device. Wouldn't be a big deal ordinarily, but it switches the radio to satellite mode so it can communicate with the phone and doesn't autoswtich back.

After almost a month of enabling this setting, I have peace and quiet. I see a handful of missed calls and none of them bother to leave a message. It's Nurvana.