Call Blocking Devices

I used Magic Jack. I could block unlimited, had same function as land lines. Worked off the computer. I moved to the desert in Texas and don't have land line here. M J doesn't work with satellite internet, My cell phones worked great with it...

So you are using Magic [***] a computer tethered to a cell phone ... interesting

I've just discovered "Security Screening" from our telephone company - Century Link. There are 2 levels and we have had "Standard Screening" ((screens calls that show unknown or are blocked from appearing on a Caller ID Unit and also screen calls that appear as private.)) for some time.
   But there is another level which I found out about 2 weeks ago. "Advanced Screening" screens not only blocks unknown and private calls but it also screens calls from toll free and long distance numbers.
  This info is taken from CL website: "Advanced Screening option will continue to screen blocked (private), unknown (unavailable) calls and will additionally screen ALL calls identified as from toll free numbers and long distance calls.  Blocked and unavailable calls will be handled as they are with Standard Screening.  When the Advanced Screening option of Security Screen is ON, calls from ALL toll free and long distance numbers will hear this announcement: "The party you are calling does not accept unidentified calls. If you are a solicitor, please hang up now. Otherwise, please enter your 10-digit telephone number."
  For some reason, we can't even get thru from our cell phones although our family is not having that problem. Also, we have the option of giving our family and friends a 4 digit code to bypass the screening announcement. Our telemarketing calls have dropped from 4-5 a day to one in 2 weeks. Another call got thru but it was previously blocked and with our phone system, blocked calls ring once.
  Ahhhhhhhhhh - peace and quite!!!  Hope this continues.

"we can't even get thru from our cell phones"
A lot of cell phone accounts do not send a Caller ID name,
    thus becoming "unknown (unavailable) calls"
And the no-contract phones can be set up without any owner-information at all.

William: Ahhh - thx!  We are using Verizon and rest of family is using TMobile. We don't have our caller information blocked but still I guess the information is "unknown unavailable". Well at least we can use the 4 digit pass code to get thru.

Had it applied on Fri Jun 11, Got email note it was in-force on Saturday Jun 12.
Monday got two scumbag "_Unavailable _" CID calls the supposed "Advanced" screening should have stopped before ever ringing my line.  It is supposed to challenge the caller to enter a 10 digit number - robo callers don't do that !  So how did the losers get past that super duper CenturyLink screening ?!?!  They have not gotten past my local blocker box that only challenged with a enter "0" message since it went on my line March 2015 !!!

Many PCs still come with a modem, and if it's missing you can easily and cheaply add one, even though just about nobody uses one anymore.  If your PC has one, you can get free-or-cheapware programs that will use the caller ID from the modem to determine whether to flag an incoming call as suspicious.  I have a lengthy list of specific numbers set up on mine, along with wildcard-match patterns to catch numbers that are invalid by definition, such as anything where the exchange starts with a 1 or 0.  I also have all of the Caribbean and Mexican area codes blocked. (Though, honestly, we've never had a call from a Mexican area code.)  I also have the area code and exchanges for the Kissimmee, FL area blocked because every call from that area that we have ever received has been a "free trip to Disney" scam.  If I didn't have a few friends in the Washington, DC area, I'd have blocked that area code long ago as well - and I'm considering whitelisting my friends and then blocking the rest of it.  Calls from the DC area code are nearly all scams.

I use Phone Tray.  There are others that reportedly work just as well.

I forgot to mention that Phone Tray will pick up the line on a known-suspicious number from its list, play a recorded message of your choice, and then drop the call.  Some of the "recorded messages" supplied with it include the telco audible tone signals for "this line is out of service or disconnected", along with the voice message to that effect.  One of them is a clip of Gandalf shouting "You Shall Not Pass!"

We had Advanced Security Screening on for about 2 weeks. Our friends and legitimate business associates were having issues getting through. Found out about "No Soliciting" screen from Century Link and removed Advanced Security and added that. It plays a recording to the effect that 'this number does not accept solicitation calls and if you are a solicitor please hang up. Otherwise press 1 or wait to be connected." It offers the options of adding 25 of your favorite numbers and they get right through without hearing the recording.  It will be 1 month tomorrow that we added advanced security and then switched to no soliciting. We haven't had any calls from telemarketers. other than the blocked call that came thru as mentioned above. Here's a link if you want to read about it. http://www.centurylink.com/small-business/cus ... ion-BE-8-11.pdf