Blocking telemarketers

[TWC42]

First, the how to:
Take advantage of the "Silent" ringtone available on the HTC One,
Assign all your contacts a specific ringtone, make the default ringtone "Silent".
Non-contact callers will go to voicemail. 95% of telemarketers don't leave a message.
Some can't use this method because they never know who might call and they have to be available.
But for others, like me, it is rare that I get a call from someone not on my contact list, and even more rare that the call is urgent.
I've looked into apps that do this, like Mr Number and TrueCall, but they are too complex, use data, some cost $, some are buggy.
Another way that I haven't tried is Silent Time, an app I use where I schedule a silent time overnight and allow family members to ring through.
One might create a schedule "24/7" as a silent time and add every contact as an exception. I prefer the first method and not depend on an app.
In spite of being on the National Do Not Call list, and being a mobile number, I still get one or two telemarketer calls each week. Robocalls, sequential dialers, sometimes a live person. The last call I got was an outright scam, from a local number that I answered because I didn't suspect it was a telemarketer.
HTH someone who hates telemarketers as much as I do.

 

[Dave Clark]

You could just block the number if you don't recognise it? I've done this with two numbers ringing me asking me to claim compensation for something or other. Straight to block no more calls. To block go to your call history, press and hold and select block contact.

 

[TWC42]

You could just block the number if you don't recognise it?.

Yep, I've been doing that, have a couple of "contacts" called "Spammer" and "Telemarketer" and add those numbers, and block those contacts. But that allows any of the infinite number of telemarketers to ring the first time. I'm trying to avoid even that. Don't want my phone to ring unless it's a call from someone I know. And the "silent ringtone" method means I don't have to have those "Spammer" and "Telemarketer" contacts with an ever increasing list of phone numbers.

 

[Dave Clark]

So what if for some unforeseen circumstance someone needs to get hold of you on an unknown number for something urgent? What then?

 

[TWC42]

So what if for some unforeseen circumstance someone needs to get hold of you on an unknown number for something urgent? What then?

That is why the unanswered calls go to voicemail. What if I was in the shower, driving, sleeping, making love to my beautiful wife? I wouldn't answer an "urgent" call then, would I? :>) The scenario you described hasn't happened to me in my entire lifetime, either before cellphones or after. Why put up with any calls from telemarketers because of that remote possibility?
But what I expect would happen is that the caller will go to my voicemail, leave a message, my phone will ping indicating I have a voicemail, I'll check my voicemail inbox, get the message and call back. Weigh that slight delay vs. putting up with telemarketers.
I just realized with the "silent ringtone" setup, I no longer need to maintain a "Spammer" or "Telemarketer" contact. Before deleting those two contacts, I counted the phone numbers. 24 in all. That's on a cellphone, where it is illegal in the US to call mobile numbers.
Both methods, using a silent ringtone, or creating a blocked contact, has it's pros and cons.
With the silent ringtone, if I ever had to sign out of Google on my phone and sign back in, I might lose all the assigned ringtones and have to set it up all over again for each contact. Fingers crossed that the next upgrade (Kit Kat?) doesn't wipe out the assigned ringtones or eliminate the silent ringtone. And there's the call from the Doctor's office, on a different number than the one in my contact list, as you describe, that would go to voicemail. (In that case, if waiting for a call from the Doc, I could just temporarily change the default ringtone to something other than silent).
Using the blocked contact method, one always has to deal with telemarketers the first time they call. Of those 24 numbers that I had blocked, several were sequential, meaning the same SOB tried calling again.
Take your pick.
I don't want to give telemarketers the opportunity to ring my phone.

 

[justafew]

Try aFirewall. I've been using it and you can choose to block unknown callers (or even known callers for a call and/or sms).

https://forums.androidcentral.com/e....lianyun.afirewall.inapp&hl=en&token=OmAeshCU

You can even set it to notify you of the missed call or not. But even if you don't get the "notification", you can always check the log within the app to see what calls were blocked. If an unknown number (or blocked number) calls, it sends them straight to voicemail w/o my phone ringing.

It's free, so that's a plus and does the job for me.

 

[Fathertime]

Use NQ CallBlocker app. You can block anybody. When you block a number it doesn't ring if they call again and doesn't go to voicemail.

 

[Almeuit]

You get telemarketers? I don't and my number is easy .

Watch what you sign up for!

Sent from my T-Mobile Note 3 using AC Forums.

 

[TWC42]

You get telemarketers? I don't and my number is easy .

Watch what you sign up for!

Sent from my T-Mobile Note 3 using AC Forums.

You should be aware that some telemarketers call every possible number sequentially.

 

[DWS44]

You get telemarketers? I don't and my number is easy

The robocallers will find you, too...rest assured.

 

[TWC42]

Just a few thoughts. There are somewhere in the neighborhood of 80 billion possible phone numbers in the US. Obviously not all in use, but with a population around 300 million, lets just say there are hundreds of millions of phone numbers in use. Without any kind of control, any one of those hundreds of million of persons could call you. It is only through common courtesy of most people and the sheer amount of other numbers that your number is not constantly bombarded by whackos and misdialed calls. But telemarketers make it a point to attempt to dial every possible number in search of a sucker for their scams.
Do you want to have a line that is open to the PUBLIC, so that anyone can call you at any time, or would you prefer a closed, PRIVATE line where only your friends, relatives, business associates can call you? For what I pay for my cellphone, I prefer Privacy to being open to the Public.