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Pros and Cons of Stopping Spam Calls in Roseville
Is stopping spam calls in Roseville, the Greater Sacramento Valley Area or somewhere else of any interest to you? It definitely is to me! I don’t do it as much as I’d like though. That’s because I’m a real estate agent and I love to help my clients AND my future clients. Ignoring spam calls is fine, but I might also end up ignoring calls from people needing my real estate help.
If you are not in the type of business where you might get calls from future clients, though, you definitely have some excellent and FREE options for stopping spam calls wherever you live.
And now is a good time to start. I have had 3 phone calls today with NO PHONE NUMBER showing. One I answered – it was one of those “warning, you are in danger of something. Call this number immediately” FAKE FRAUD calls. I hung up! I’ve had two more today and I saw on NextDoor that a couple of other people have had some of those today! Those are especially tricky – but I learned a new trick for those and wanted to share that with you along with some of my oldie goldies. 🙂
Do Not Call List
The first place to start is to put your name on the Do Not Call List Registry. I realize many people ignore that – especially those in sales. But some, like me, totally respect and obey those restrictions. And it’s definitely a good place to start! Do it for your phones – both landline and cell. THEN make sure that your senior parents’ have done that with their phones. Especially since they are at greater risk of being “snookered” by these spam callers, as those of us on Facebook‘s Roseville Good Neighbor groups and Roseville’s NextDoor groups are made aware of often.
Roseville’s Land Line Options
If you are using landlines from Roseville’s Consolidated Communications, Comcast / Xfinity, or any other company, call them to ask what options you have available through them. We had Comcast and happily used their Nomorobo option for years. (See more below). I imagine other phone companies have something similar. Give them a buzz to find out.
iPhone vs Android Disclaimer
I should warn you I am an iPhone fan. In fact, we are a Mac and Apple family – tho we do have some PC’s here and there and I speak both Mac and PC but I do better with Mac nowadays (MOST of the time 😉 ). Because of that, the following are all tested on my iPhone. BUT I am reasonably sure you can find the same or similar on your Android. So hopefully this will at least give you a good starting point in your search. But I can only tell you about my iPhone adventures. I’d love to hear your thoughts – for both iPhone and Android – below in the comments or over in Facebook on my Roseville California Joys group page OR even at my Roseville California Joys regular page. 🙂
Apps For Stopping Spam Calls
I have test driven three excellent apps for stopping spam calls here in Roseville. And yes, they worked great in other areas I visited – like when I visited grandkids and other relatives in other states. Even in the various states I visited for an hour or so while on a layover. 🙂 I can’t guarantee they work everywhere BUT they did great for me til I turned them off. (Due to my being a REALTOR. 🙂 )
Nomorobo
For years I had a landline with Comcast / Xfinity. They offered a wonderful option for my personal phone number called Nomorobo. Because my personal phone had been in existence for decades and we didn’t set it up to be unlisted, we got SOOOOO many junk calls on that phone. I was thrilled to sign up for Nomorobo. It worked well. It didn’t catch them all but it caught a lot of them. It was pretty fun to see the messages go across the TV screen announcing another spammer had bit the virtual dust too.
RoboKiller: Block Spam Calls
When I saw the RoboKiller app for my iPhone which seemed to offer similar searches for my iPhone, I had to try it. It worked great for me. This is a service with several great options and it currently runs $19.99 a month with a free 1 week trial. I used the subscription plan and was very happy with it. This app caught a ton of the fake calls, tho not all. (Those spammers get sneakier with every new tool – just like computer hackers who love to steal our online identities!)
AT&T Call Protect
Last time I upgraded my cell phone at my Roseville AT&T store, I was thrilled when they told me about AT&T Protect. It offers both a free version and a paid upgraded version for AT&T customers. I paid for the monthly upgraded version and was very happy with it. But as I mentioned above, I realized that – as a Roseville real estate agent, it might be blocking calls from legitimate callers who needed my real estate assistance, so I have discontinued it.
My Own Spam Solution
Now, just because I have opted NOT to block spammers willy nilly due to possible real callers being mistaken as spammers (and yes, that DOES happen!), I do have a couple of solutions to help me, to help others in my situation – AND to help all of you. Again, I know these both work with iPhone – I don’t know about Android or other phones.
For general spammers, I answer once, very politely. If it’s a recording, I immediately hang up. If it’s a person, I politely excuse myself, and again, hang up.
In both cases, I then click the circled i, which gives me the info for the phone call. Since it’s not in my contacts, it shows me the options in the bottom half of the page to “share contact, create new contact, or add to existing contact.” VERY carefully (since I don’t want to choose the wrong option), I select ADD TO EXISTING CONTACTS. I then get a long list of my contacts including one I have previously set up (which I’ll explain next) that says – A SALES PITCH – BLOCK. And voila, I had a chance to confirm whether this call was on the level, but NOW it will forever be blocked. 🙂
And the way I did THAT – The very first time I did it, was right after I got a spam call. After I hung up, I went in to my contacts, clicked the circled i, clicked on “create new contact,” typed in A SALES PITCH – BLOCK to remind me and hopefully keep it at the top. THEN I went thru and changed ringtone to silent AND ringtone vibration at the top to none AND made sure the emergency bypass was OFF (It’s green if it is on). I then clicked DONE and THEN went right below it to Text Tone. In text tone screen, I again confirmed that emergency bypass was off, and changed vibration to none AND changed the default to none. Then I closed the screen and went back to the New Contact screen – where you can type in name and address, etc. In this case, you should have, or you should add, A Sales Pitch – Block or whatever you prefer. Save this new contact. Then click on it and scroll down to the bottom, (you may have to hit the circled i so as not to dial it). Scroll down all the way and click BLOCK THIS CALLER.
Now, whenever I get a genuine spam call, I just add that to this caller and it’s automatically silenced and blocked. I might not have to do all these steps, but it guarantees no ringing gets thru and by doing all the steps, I have a saved option they all go to.
What If There’s NO PHONE NUMBER?!?!
As I mentioned above, I got a phone call with no number. I cautiously answered it and got a recording – a spam call! I immediately hung up but I couldn’t block it because of no number. I did a search and came up with a solution for SOME for the iPhone – click here for the directions. Why do I say “for some”? I tried it for a couple of days and learned that it doesn’t just impact “no number” calls – it impacts all calls who have not previously called you RECENTLY. BUT they can leave voicemail – which is good! Assuming, of course, that they leave a voicemail. If they do, that allows you to check the callers out and filter out the “good guys” from the “bad guys.” Be warned though – it says it should also show in recent calls. One of my grandkids called today for the first time in a few months (we mostly chat by text and other ways). Her call did NOT show in my recents and she was rushing so she didn’t leave a voicemail. The only reason I knew she called was because her sister mentioned it to me later in the day. So for me, that won’t work. I have too many teens and tweens grandkids and each of those calls are way too precious to miss so I’ll endure spammers for their sake. For that matter, I wouldn’t do it due to business needs either – both for the sake of my current clients who might use a different phone – or also mostly text and then call and then it might not ring, as well as for the sake of my future clients or other business calls I don’t want to miss. It’s amazing how many calls a REALTOR gets from new people that are about current real estate clients. They, too, are too important to want to miss. 🙂 However, it could still be useful for many of you – and/or your elderly parents and relatives. 🙂
Even AMAZON Has Options!
I just checked Amazon to see what they might have and they do have some intriguing (and not-so-intriguing) options. The CPR Callblocker above is listed as a Best Seller with 11,966 ratings and a ratings average of 4.5! It is for landlines and appears to require at least one cordless phone.
The Sentry above states that it can:
- Block all spam calls, including those not on the Black List
- Preload White List at set up. Requires Caller Id Service.
- No need to push REJECT button anymore
- Fully automatic blocking after set up
- Easy setup, perfect for seniors
- And per its NOTE: Be sure to Check User Guide on Technical Specification before use
More Info For Stopping Spam Calls in Roseville
Bottom Line for Stopping Spam Calls in Roseville
There is no one perfect solution that I’ve yet found. But there are definitely some good options. These are the ones that have helped me at various times and I do still use my own solution. We’d love to hear any suggestions you have.
Kaye
