There’s a reason you’re getting more robocalls now: due to the pandemic, many international call centers were shut down. At the same time, the government did its best to reduce COVID-19-related phone scams. All that’s over now. Robocall volume is back to pre-pandemic levels, and about 60 percent of these calls are scams or unsolicited telemarketing.
What can you do about it?
You can go to donotcall.gov and enter your phone number.
That didn’t work well enough for me, so I turned on “Silence Unknown Callers” on my iPhone. (Settings > Phone > Silence Unknown Callers > On.)
On Android, it’s “Block Unknown/Private Numbers” in the phone settings. (Open the phone > 3 dot menu > Block unknown/private numbers.) You can also tap “Block spam and scam calls” on some Android phones. (Samsung phones have this feature.) You have to agree to the terms and conditions, but some Android builds use third-party services to analyze and block suspected robocalls.
This trick sends all unknown callers to voicemail. Most robocalls don’t leave voicemail, and most unknown callers I’d want to hear from do. It’s not a perfect fix, but it beats getting a dozen robocalls a day.
Do you have a better anti-robocall lifehack? If so, please share it below.
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Author’s note: This is not a sponsored post. I am the author of this article and it expresses my own opinions. I am not, nor is my company, receiving compensation for it.