Call Blocking Devices

I have a Panasonic phone that blocks 250 numbers - love it!

I own a Sentry call blocker (I own the V2 model, not the latest v3) for my landline in which the blocker's strong suit is by whitelisting.  I think as far as call blocking goes, whitelisting is the way to go.  Otherwise, trying to mark calls as "block" with no guarantee if they are a regular caller or not is sort of like trying to catch fireflies.  Once you catch one, seems another one appears.

Over the past few days, I seriously thought about getting the latest Digitone Proseries blocker.  It has all kinds of options for blocking/inviting and can block area codes and use wildcards.  Plus, now can block 1000 numbers (previous model I think was only 120).  But still, even with all the options and features, I still picture telemarketers slipping though (for example, but using an area code and exchange similar to mine).  There is a global block option and only accept owner listed area codes/numbers.  In other words, whitelisting.  But the Digitone only allows 50 VIP and 50 regular Invited numbers whereas the Sentry allows about 1000.

So, I decided to stick with the Sentry.

In the menu there is an option to stop it from ringing once...just figured that out yesterday!  Had a blocked call today & it showed up on my call display but didn't ring!!

There are a large variety of call block units on the market to select from. They also effectively block calls that your telephone provider can't or wont. A literally exponentially larger number of numbers can be blocked, and without any monthly charge to boot.

They are invaluable for peace and privacy against any harassing or nusance calls, they can even block unavailable numbers or numbers without any call ID.

When pests call, I check with htis forum first to see who called me, then I simply press the block button if they are nusances to never hear from them again. They range from 40 to 150 bucks and even the cheapest one works wonderfully for me. No more several calls a day, presto.

My Panasonic (KX-TG7873S) has a setting so that blocked calls don't ring at all. It's not the default setting and it's very obscure in the owner's manual, but it's there.

True Caller and True Messenger work pretty well for blocking and offers Google search or ID of caller.

Free call blocker.  Why pay?  Only for cell phones.
Save the scammer and name them letter X.  Set ringtone to no ring.

I now have over 400 blacklisted numbers on my landline challenge-response type call blocker, collected in a single year.  Do you really want to enter and wade through that many numbers on your cell phone every year?  I use Mr. Number for my Android, and it's been quite effective, so far.

If you happen to have something like an old X-10 Telephone Responder or one of the many alarm announce boxes (Sensaphone, FreezeAlarm, etc.) these are great for messing with spammers - especially if you're just keeping it around for outgoing calls.

The X10 devices in particular are great, as long as you don't have auto-answer voicemail (Like Google Voice does, grrrr) - it rings 15 times and then just beeps at them. Press keys? More beeps. The Sensaphone devices just hang up on them after an announcement. Fun times.

If you're really inventive, an "It's Lenny" box can be run on a Raspberry Pi.

If you're keeping the land-line around for outgoing calls, that is. Otherwise, just get a phone with a ringer shutoff and let the damn thing ring.

What does your post have to do with the topic of this thread?

I have been using "Should I Answer" for android and it works very well most of the time.  It uses a crowd sourced database and has very few false positives.  I wish that there was a landline device that used the same database.

My VoIP provider uses TrueCNAM, which I believe is a crowd sourced database. My provider then tags my incoming calls with a SPAM likelihood of LOW, MEDIUM or HIGH probability. I route all incoming calls through a call treatment table where I can treat HIGH probability by sending them to a recording saying they're being transferred (giving time for their robo dialler to enable their message and look for a digit being pushed), then I give them a touch-tone (DTMF)  digit 1 recording, then another recording stating the call is being traced and a charge of $1.50 will be place on their phone bill.