No matter how hard you try, spammers and scammers are going to get ahold of your phone number. It’s impossible to keep your phone number completely private. Anyone you call, any form you fill out – if your number is on it, there is a chance it can be sold to or used by some service that is going to abuse it.
Ideally, there would be a way to block any phone number you want at any time. Unfortunately that functionality is not yet available. So if you are getting unwanted phone calls, follow these tips to block unwanted calls as best you can.
Block Unwanted Calls
Add Yourself to the Do Not Call Registry
It’s not going to stop all of the scammers, but the companies that are at least slightly legitimate are going to be less likely to call you if you’re on the Do Not Call Registry. You can find the registry here. This is the first step towards blocking most unwanted calls.
Check With Your Phone Company
Some phone companies offer call blocking services for certain customers. AT&T;’s home phone service, for example, allows up to six numbers to be blocked at a time. Every phone company has different options, so contact your service provider directly to see what they have available.
Never Give Your Number to Websites Unless You Have To
The most notorious abusers of your phone number are websites that ask for your telephone number but don’t need it for any reason. They often sell their data to other people for extra profit. If a company is asking for your number and you can’t see any good reason why, give them a 555 number and forget about it.
Sign Up for a Call Blocking Service
They’re a little pricy and not necessarily worth the money, but a call blocking service can prevent specific numbers from calling your phone. Useful if you want to block a crazy ex. However, most of these services don’t work with cell phones, which these days tends to defeat the purpose.
Block the Texts and Ignore the Calls
Blocking specific people is not always possible, but blocking text messages from specific numbers and blocking anonymous callers will reduce most of the annoying calls from people you don’t want to hear from, and then you simply need to ignore the phone number when you see it calling.
How to Block a Phone Number
Unfortunately, it is not yet possible to block a phone number specifically, especially a wireless number. However, if you are being harassed by an ex or an old friend, you may be able to contact the police and make it a criminal matter. Otherwise the best thing you can do is block all the calls you can block (anonymous calls, texts, sales calls, etc.), and ignore the calls from the numbers you recognize that you’d prefer not to talk to.
