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The majority of calls I receive on my phone aren’t from my friends and family or coworkers. No, instead they’re from scammers and telemarketers, notifying me that I’ve “won the lottery” or simply pretending to be the IRS and threatening me to pay up.<\/p>\n
It’s why I don’t pick up any phone numbers I don’t easily recognize, even if it might actually be important, because I’m scarred from the sheer amount of spam calls I get every single day.<\/p>\n
This year alone,\u00a0Americans are expected to get over 52 billion robocalls<\/span>, which breaks down to approximately 1 billion calls every week, according to YouMail, a company that specializes in blocking them.<\/p>\n And these calls come in all shapes and sizes. You’re likely familiar with the good ol’ “scam likely” calls, but there are also more sophisticated attacks, that involve spoofing local numbers and those of popular companies, to convince you to give up your personal information and cash. More recently, these attacks have moved over to SMS, where there are\u00a0phishing text messages that come from your own phone number<\/span>.<\/p>\n No matter what the calls say, one thing is certain — they need to stop.\u00a0<\/p>\n Last year, the Federal Communications Commission aimed to wrangle the robocall problem by requiring major wireless carriers to start using Stir\/Shaken technology<\/span>. Stir\/Shaken verifies all incoming and outgoing calls for wireless carriers<\/span> that are routed through their networks. By verifying each call, carriers can reduce the number of fake or spoofed calls. But it only stops robocalls on one avenue — it’s not the be-all and end-all. You may still get spam calls for free trips or fake notices that your student loan payment is overdue.\u00a0<\/p>\n Read more<\/strong>: CNET’s Interview With FCC Chair Jessica Rosenworcel<\/span><\/p>\n You can read more about Stir\/Shaken here<\/span>. As the FCC continues its crusade, keep reading this story for things you can do to help curb the number of times your phone rings throughout the day with calls from potential fraudsters.<\/p>\n According to the FCC<\/a>, there are some easy steps you can take to help reduce robocalls: <\/p>\n When you answer a call and interact with the voice prompt or by pressing a number, it lets spammers know your number is real. They can then sell your number to another company or begin targeting your number more frequently. <\/p>\n When it first launched, Google’s Call Screen<\/span> feature arguably went against the FCC’s advice by answering and interacting with the robocall on your behalf. However, Google added new features to Call Screen<\/span>\u00a0for its Pixel phone lineup<\/span>. The feature can now detect robocalls and spam calls and block them before they reach you. Google Assistant will interact with the caller, and if it determines that the call is legitimate, it will route the call to your phone. <\/p>\n Apple’s iPhone<\/span>\u00a0has an option to\u00a0Silence Unknown Callers<\/span>, which adds the option to route calls from numbers not found in your Contacts, Mail or Messages straight to voicemail. Any legitimate callers can leave a message. But that’s the rub: We often receive important calls from numbers we don’t store on our phones, like a doctor’s office or a repairman, so you could miss important calls this way. But if all else fails and you’re desperate to stop robocalls, this is a valid option. <\/p>\n If you find yourself receiving a lot of spam text messages, you can\u00a0forward the message<\/a> to the number 7726 (which spells “spam”). It won’t stop the number from texting you right away, but it will allow your carrier to look into where it came from and put an end to it. <\/p>\n Call screening is a feature on Google’s Pixel phones.\u00a0<\/p>\n <\/span> All four major wireless carriers offer some sort of call-blocking feature. All have a free option and a premium tier. But let’s be frank, all robocall-blocking services should be free. This shouldn’t be a way for carriers to make some money off of us.\u00a0 <\/p>\n Use a different wireless carrier? I suggest calling its customer support or visiting its website to see if it offers a similar service.\u00a0 <\/p>\n Firewall takes a new approach to stopping spam and robocalls from ever reaching your phone.\u00a0<\/p>\n <\/span> If your provider doesn’t offer an app or service to cut back on robocalls, or does but it’s too expensive, there are plenty of third-party apps available. You want to find an app that works on your device, offers automatic call blocking and spam alerts for suspicious calls and makes it easy to report a number if a call slips through. <\/p>\n Hiya<\/a> is a free app I have used on Android and iOS for some time now with success. It’s from the same company that powers ATT’s Call Protect app, as well as Samsung’s built-in call block and spam protection service. Samsung Galaxy owners can enable the built-in service in the Phone app under Settings<\/strong> Caller ID<\/strong> and Spam Protection<\/strong>. Setup is painless, and it offers an easy way to report a number. <\/p>\n Nomorobo<\/a> is the service that Verizon uses for its Fios users, but it also has a phone app. The service is free for VoIP users and costs $2 per month for mobile users. Additional services with similar capabilities include YouMail<\/a> and RoboKiller<\/a><\/span>. <\/p>\n Hiya offers robust call screening.\u00a0<\/p>\n <\/span> The Firewall app<\/span> is only available on the iPhone and does a fantastic job of blocking calls. In the event you need to make a call that you’d rather not use your real phone number for, the $4-a-month subscription provides unlimited single-use fake phone numbers.\u00a0 <\/p>\nHow to keep annoying robocalls at a minimum<\/h2>\n
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\n Jason Cipriani\/CNET
\n <\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n \t \tCheck with your wireless carrier<\/h2>\n
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\n Jason Cipriani\/CNET
\n <\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n \t \t\tUse a third-party app to limit the number of robocalls you get\u00a0<\/h2>\n
\n Jason Cipriani\/CNET
\n <\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n