I'm using a call blocker. The problem is the ever changing numbers that these callers use. In any given day callers who have been effectively blocked re-emerge using newly minted numbers replete with differing area codes. I'd venture that being vigilant, at best I'd be fortunate to block 80% of these calls.
I've been able to frustrate a lot of "ever changing number" callers by blocking entire area codes and prefix numbers with the wild card function on my call blocker. You never get them all, but can stop most.
I have a Samsung Galaxy SII as my only phone. Early on, I purchased an inexpensive app called "Extreme Call Blocker Droid." It is, in a word, fantastic.
Here's my review - and no, I have no connection, social or financial, with the publishers, and I don't make money when people buy this app. I promote it because it WORKS, and saves me a lot of aggravation:
One of the great things 800Notes does for me is provide numbers for callers who haven't hit my phone yet. I spend a few minutes a day entering numbers I find here into my Blacklist...if and when they do call, the phone picks up the call and sends a very loud (90dB+) screeching sound for 30 seconds, then hangs up.
When these [***] call, my phone does not ring - I don't know they've called until I look at the logs.
I have been using Extreme Call Blocker Droid for a year now. I used to get 4 or 5 calls a day from various robo-dialers. After a year of aggressive effort, I get less than one call a week.
The very worst offenders (Canadian Pharmacy, for instance, which uses a variety of phony numbers and which used to call 2-3 times a day) have given up - they don't bother calling me, because, like Pavlov's dogs, they've been taught to leave me bloody well alone.
Here are my blacklist logs for November forward: 1-23-2013 01:32 pm +18007276148 Generic Toll Free In regular black list, set to send to voice mail 1-19-2013 05:34 pm nonumber Unknown Set to block anonymous calls send to voicemail 1-14-2013 11:15 am +12063760164 mlm robocall In Regular black list, set to pick up and hang up 1-7-2013 01:59 pm +17039572905 Online Pharmacy In regular black list, set to auto play pretender 12-18-2012 05:14 pm +12507399089 Unk Victoria In regular black list, set to send to voice mail 12-18-2012 05:14 pm +12507582438 Laird Wheaton In Regular black list, set to pick up and hang up 12-13-2012 10:20 am nonumber Unknown Set to block anonymous calls send to voicemail 12-12-2012 06:28 pm +12507582438 Laird Wheaton In regular black list, set to send to voice mail 12-5-2012 11:17 am +18886937569 Generic Toll Free In regular black list, set to auto play pretender 11-27-2012 02:17 pm +17039572905 Online Pharmacy In regular black list, set to auto play pretender 11-23-2012 03:38 pm +17039572905 Online Pharmacy In regular black list, set to auto play pretender 11-21-2012 02:47 pm +17039572905 Online Pharmacy In regular black list, set to auto play pretender 11-21-2012 02:27 pm +12507582438 Laird Wheaton In regular black list, set to send to voice mail 11-20-2012 10:54 am +14807796454 Telemarketer In Regular black list, set to pick up and hang up 11-9-2012 02:23 pm +17039572905 Online Pharmacy In regular black list, set to auto play pretender 11-8-2012 02:12 pm nonumber Unknown Set to block anonymous calls send to voicemail 11-5-2012 11:45 am +19044048007 Unknown In Regular black list, set to pick up and hang up 11-5-2012 11:15 am +19044048007 Unknown In Regular black list, set to pick up and hang up 11-3-2012 09:55 am +14807796454 Telemarketer In Regular black list, set to pick up and hang up 11-3-2012 09:25 am +14807796454 Telemarketer In Regular black list, set to pick up and hang up 11-1-2012 11:58 am +17039572905 Unk suspicious In regular black list, set to auto play pretender
That's 21 calls in 84 days, or one call attempt every four days. As you can see, only a handful of those made it to VM - and when they did, if the message was spam, I added their specific number to the blacklist.
My call blocker (an Android app) allows me to direct all unknown numbers (numbers not in my contact list) as I see fit. My choice is to send them to voicemail. Then, if a number leaves voicemail, I can change the redirection to accept the call, pickup-hangup, or pickup and play loud noises. If the unknown number leaves no VM, I take no further action unless I get further silent calls, in which case I pickup and send them loud noises or a dial tone. No further problem.
I have also sync'd my Google Calendar with my phone, and set the calendar to "refuse strangers" between 10pm and 10am.
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Janet
I'm trying to screen telemarketers on my 30 year old landline number, preferably using a whitelist. I think long term a whitelist will become the only manageable way to handle it as these international callers get more and more aggressive. My only DSL service choice is pretty poor now and I'd rather avoid voip.
The problem I see with GV is that you have to have a downstream phone number at your home to forward your screened calls to. What happens when that downstream number gets hit directly with spam calls? The other issue is that just getting an incoming call with GV would involve my landline company, GV, the internet, another phone number issuing company, a company that supports opi or ooma. That's a lot of failure points. I'll bet at least one of them goes away or makes a major change once a year. As I get older, the complexity is a big drawback.
The problem with Phonetray is that if I use a whitelist approach, rejected callers can't leave a message so I know if they are important or not. I don't want to miss the doctor calling with cancer test results from a number I don't know. GV lets them at least leave a message.
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consultmac
I have had all the problems described on here about the spam and robo callers. I USED to have those problems. I *LOVE* my whitelist function provided by the otherwise pedestrian VOIP provider ITPVOIP (see http://www.itpvoip.com/) on my home "land line" (although internet based).
I have several dozen numbers on my whitelist and ONLY THOSE ring my phone. Everybody else gets sent to voicemail without even ringing my phone once.
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someGuyInCanada
if your landline provider offers simultanious ring and you have a rooted android cell phone:
1. setup your landline to "same time" ring on your cell phone. 2. on your rooted android, install root call blocker pro. 3. in r.c.b pro block unknown calls & any time you get a telemarketer call u, add their number to the black list.
Done and done. If they call again, your cell phone will handle it - disconnecting the call for both your landline and your cell.
Do you ever get the feeling we're being herded to cell phones only? I know Verizon is doing it's best to convert to FIOS--wireless, and rumor has it they will be locating in India soon.What corporations don't seem to realize is that without jobs for people, they will have little or no business in this country. Apparently, they don't care.
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Janet
| 2 replies
OK, I bought and installed PhoneTray today. I bought an $18 modem from Amazon, and installed it on my PC in a few minutes and hooked up my landline. I still have to update all my contacts, but it works simply and well, as advertized. Right now I'm using a blacklist approach. Until PhoneTray gets an answering machine option for blocked calls, I can't go with the whitelist.
If it works well enough, I'll try to find a refurb'ed netbook to run it on so I don't have so much phone wire strung around.
Google Voice (which is free) can be configured to do exactly what you want.
Also, if you added or switched to VOIP, many VOIP providers have excellent call management rule sets which will also do exactly what you want.
Phone Tray is hoary, energy wasting, and relies on your PC not crashing. If you are willing to bear the energy waste of running a computer, take a look at PIAF (an Asterisk derivative) for a truly powerful solution which can also provide you with VOIP support if you like: http://pbxinaflash.com/ It is Linux based, so crashing isn't much of a concern, and pretty much any computer you find at Goodwill is up to the task, although a small Atom based system would be a lot more energy efficient.
I think we're herding ourselves - landlines are being dropped because folks are electing to use their cell phones exclusively. When the market dwindles enough, POTS will stop being economically viable.
As for killing the golden goose, I agree with you, but as long as most consumers shop based on the cheapest price, that trend will also continue. How many people would call Verizon and offer to pay $20 a month more if they promise to keep everything in the U.S.?
Don't misunderstand, I'm not affixing blame, just pointing out that there are a lot of conflicting economic forces driving some of these things. Personally, I'd like to see the income tax replaced with import duties. It would bring the jobs back home. Of course, we wouldn't have all the cheap playthings we have now, but getting a sea of disposable products out of our lives might not be so bad either.
You might be interested to know that more than a few such apps harvest your contact and call info and send the information back to the app's creators. Presumably that information is subject to being sold to the database companies, who in turn sell your personal calling habits to whoever wants such information. It could be a real goldmine for skip tracers, collection agencies, and others. Think about that the next time you wonder how someone got your cell number.
Also, if you look yourself up in one of the major commercial data mining sites, you will see that they list all your family and known associates - ever wonder how they come up with that stuff?
Earlier I was replying to your "just got phonetray" post, but I see now that you previously raised a concern about GV and your downstream number. Let me address that.
First, I will say that VOIP has an advantage in that regard - you can simply port your number to your VOIP provider and all is good to go, no additional numbers needed.
However, GV is nice for use with cell phones (because you can configure it to be your voicemail provider). And if you want to use GV for your landline, you can port your old number to GV and use a new, unpublished number for your landline. I should warn you though, that while I port DIDs back and forth among VOIP providers with no problems, I have never tried porting a number to GV and then porting it away, so I can't say how smoothly that would go.
Personally, I use GV with my cell phones (which never get much in the way of junk calls anyway, because I NEVER give those numbers to anyone). Normally, my phone system decides which incoming calls get routed to the cell phones. For my "landline" numbers which I do give to others, I use VOIP. The blend works perfectly. On the rare occasions when I need to give someone a "cell phone" number, I have a DID on one of my VOIP accounts which simply forwards into my cell phone.
It is very easy to filter and route numbers as I wish, or to deactivate/replace numbers if need be. These things take minutes, not hours or days.
Hope this is helpful.
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Janet
| 1 reply
Lone Stranger, I appreciate your advice. I learned a lot from you on this thread and found the courage to try some things.
I decided to try phonetray first because I'm home most of the day and my computer is on anyway. It seemed like a simpler thing to try first. Also, my DSL isn't that fast and I'm concerned about VOIP quality.
I did go out and get a GV number to play with, but they won't port landlines at this time, only cell phones. My problem is my landline. I seldom use my cell. I'm old, what can I say? GV looked really good to me for function I have to admit. Phonetray now lacks the ability to let blocked calls leave a message, GV does that.
It's good to know there are options for different situations.
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