How to Stop Spam Calls, Robocalls & Telemarketers

There is nothing more frustrating than hearing the phone ring only to discover it’s an unwanted spam call. Not only does this take precious time away from your day, spam and robocalls and the people behind them are relentless. 

From automated messages about political candidates to scammers pretending to be calling from your bank, we’re now all too familiar with these nuisance calls. 

And the problem is only getting worse. More than 40.1 billion spam calls were made in the first six months of 2021 alone. That’s over 100 times the size of the US population. To top that, spam texts are also reportedly on the rise with findings revealing over 47 billion were sent during the same period. 

So, how to stop spam calls? Unfortunately, there is no magic formula that will stop this overnight. However, there are a number of options to choose from that offer differing levels of protection which this guide will walk you through.   

Understanding how phone spammers and scammers operate  

First up, a quick primer on how scam and spam callers operate, so you can understand how and why they do what they do. 

The different types of nuisance calls 

People often mix up and confuse the different types of nuisance calls they receive. This is how we define them:

• Robocallers: Perhaps the most frequent, a recorded message sent to many people simultaneously, that plays when you answer. Can be from a legitimate source, such as a political campaign, or from a scammer, such as a social security fraud call.
• Spam & telemarketing calls: These aren’t usually considered fraud as they are from legitimate organizations, but they’re trying to sell you something you don’t want, ask you survey questions, canvass you for an upcoming election, etc.
• Fraud & scam calls: These are outright fraudulent, where the caller is trying to trick you into something, such as by impersonating an IRS agent to get your account number.  

Why am I getting spam, scam and telemarketing calls?

The simple answer is because there is money to be made. 

Telemarketing firms are usually legitimate organizations and it’s simply a numbers game for them. If 1 in every 300 people that they call buys what they’re selling, then it can be a profitable (and highly irritating) business model. 

The same logic applies to scammers operating phone fraud. While many of us know to hang up straight away when we receive a suspicious robocall or any other type of dubious call, there are unfortunately many people who are a lot more vulnerable to phone scams. These vulnerable individuals could fall victim to Social Security fraud through robocalls. 

Where do spammers and scammers get my phone number from?

In the case of telemarketers, you may have unwittingly given them the approval to call your phone number when you purchased a product or service and didn’t check the box to say you didn’t want your details being used for marketing purposes. 

In the case of scammers (both human operators and robocallers), they will often legally acquire your phone number and other personal information from data brokers.

How are scammers calling me from a local number?

This is a growing problem and is called neighborhood spoofing, where scammers are able to mask their actual number with a local number. The scammers have figured out that the average person is more likely to pick up a call if it’s from a local number. 

Thankfully, many of the below prevention options have gotten very good at detecting neighborhood spoofing. In fact, this has now become one of the most effective ways for detection software to spot a scam call. 

Options to stop spam & other nuisance calls 

1. Make some adjustments to how you handle unwanted calls 

First things first, you don’t want scammers to know your phone number is active, otherwise, you may start receiving an increase in nuisance calls as your number can be sold on.

Here are some basic tips from the FCC when it comes to how to handle unwanted calls 

• Don’t answer calls from blocked or unknown numbers
• Scammers may call from a number with a local area code, so don’t let this lower your guard
• If a recording asks you to hit a number on your keypad, hang up immediately
• If a caller claims to be from a company or government agency, end the call, then call the organization back using the phone number on their website
• Never give away any personal information, such as your social security number or mother’s maiden name
• Do not answer any questions, especially those that can be answered with a “yes”, as scammers might be recording the call and can then edit the recording to make it sound like you’ve agreed to something that you didn’t.  

2. Add yourself to the do not call registry (but understand the limits of this)

The FTC operates the National Do Not Call Registry, which telemarketers should abide by. Add yourself to the list here and your number should be removed from telemarketers lists within 31 days.

How does this service work?

Telemarketers are required to cross-reference their call lists with the registry every 31 days and remove any numbers from their lists that they find on the registry. 

3. Activate built-in features within your phone’s OS

Many Android phones now come with built-in spam protection software. Google provides caller ID & Spam Protection, which will provide caller ID data if a number calls you that is not within your contacts. It will also flag potential spam and scam calls.

Apple provides a spam-killing option with its Silence Unknown Callers feature. This will divert any calls to voicemail from numbers that are not in your contacts or haven’t previously phoned or texted you.  

How do these services work?

The Google service is pretty clever. It uses data from its Google My Business directory to display caller ID data, as well as data on scam numbers to flag possible scam and robocalls.

The Apple service is less sophisticated, essentially diverting all numbers not known to you to voicemail. 

4. Activate a service provided by your carrier 

Each of the big four network providers offers free and/or premium services to block nuisance calls. Here’s a breakdown of what’s available:

• T-Mobile. Top of the class is arguably T-Mobile’s service Scam Shield, owing to the fact it’s offered free to all customers. The iOS and Android app blocks known spam numbers, and also provides caller ID for numbers not in your contacts. Or if you just want to turn on the spam block feature without downloading the app, dial #662#.    
• Sprint. The Call Screener service is now free for all customers, due to the merger with T-mobile. Once installed, the mobile app flags or blocks suspected scam calls. 
• AT&T. The Call Protect mobile app service offers both a free and paid plan. The free Basic plan blocks known scam numbers, flags potential scam calls and has a personal block list. The Plus plan, at $3.99 a month per line, provides caller ID, reverse number lookup and nuisance call controls that you can personalize.  
• Verizon. The Call Filter mobile app also offers a free and paid plan. The free plan, Call Filter, provides spam detection and filtering, while the paid plan, Call Filter Plus, provides caller ID, spam lookup and a personal block list.    

How do these services work?

The behind the scenes technology powering these spam call blocking services has come a long way over the last few years. At the heart of this is a technology known as STIR/SHAKEN, which was mandated by the FCC in July 2021. The technology verifies if a call is coming from a real number, enabling it to weed out spoofed robocalls.  

5. Download a third party app 

If the service provided by your carrier doesn’t cut it, then you could consider using a third-party scam call blocker app. Most of these will require a monthly or annual subscription charge (at least the ones that are effective will).

Here are some of our top picks:

• Hiya. This platform powers some of the spam detection services provided by Samsung, AT&T and others. It’s standalone mobile app offers both a free and paid plan, but the benefits of each differ depending on whether you’re using Android or iPhone. Caller ID and spam detection is offered for free on Android, while the paid version provides spam blocking and reverse lookup. Over on the iPhone app, the free version provides spam detection and blocking, and the paid version adds a database of known caller identities. The paid plan is $3.99 per month, with a 7 day free trial.
• RoboKiller. This app uses proprietary data to identify scammers’ numbers then block them. For added delight, its answer bot will answer scam and telemarketer calls to waste their time, and then share the recordings with you for your listening pleasure. The monthly plan costs $4.99 while the annual plan costs $39.99.          
• Nomorobo. One of the most affordable spam call blocker apps on the market, Nomorobo blocks known spam numbers. The service is free to use for VoIP landlines and $1.99 per month for mobile users.
• Firewall. While this is currently iPhone only, it provides an innovative approach to blocking spam calls by only letting a whitelist of approved numbers through, instead of blocking a blacklist of known spammers. Legitimate callers not on your whitelist can leave a voicemail which is then transcribed and sent to you via the app. The app also provides burner numbers you can use when you don’t want to reveal your real number on outbound calls. It costs $3.99 per month, with a free 14 day trial. 

How do these services work?

Most of these services work by maintaining huge databases of known scammer and robocall numbers which they update daily with new numbers they’ve identified. Whenever you receive an incoming call, the service will check the number against their blacklists to root out and block any known spammers. 

6. Tackle the Root Cause of the Problem 

The major shortcoming with all of the above options is that they don’t tackle the root cause of the problem: how scammers and robocallers get your phone number in the first place. 

Huge amounts of personal identifiable information (PII), including full names, addresses, and phone numbers are available to legally purchase from data brokers. This is a primary source of data for scammers to build their call lists from. 

What’s more, this is how scammers can trick you into believing they’re calling you from your bank or other organization, by having a lot of information about you.  

Therefore, in order to stop scammers from getting access to this data, the most effective action you can take is to remove your PII from data brokers. There are two ways to do this:

Option 1: Do it yourself

All data brokers must remove your personal data from their databases if you request this. We’ve created step-by-step guides on how to do this. The problem though is that there are countless data brokers active in the market, so removing all of your data from these platforms, not to mention your family members’ data, is extremely fiddly and time-consuming.

What’s more, this isn’t a one-time activity. Your personal data is continuously being added to data broker platforms, so you need to be constantly monitoring and removing this.

Option 2: Get us to do it for you

Here at DeleteMe, we’re the experts at removing your personal data from the internet. We’ve completed over 29 million data broker opt-out removals since 2010 on behalf of our customers.

As soon as you sign up with us, our team of privacy experts uses sophisticated AI to identify then scrub your personal data from all data broker platforms and other online sources of PII. And once your data is removed, scammers can no longer buy your personal data to then harass you with nuisance calls. We then monitor and remove any new personal data that’s added to these platforms, ensuring your PII stays off the internet.

Our plans start from just $10.75 per month.  

What’s the best approach?

As stated at the beginning of the guide, there is no perfect solution.

But as with any problem, it’s always best to treat both the symptoms and the cause. In which case, using your carrier’s free service offering, combined with removing your data from data brokers, could provide a good all-round solution.

Or if the service provided by your carrier isn’t blocking nuisance calls well enough, then subscribing to a third-party app could be your next option, while continuing to ensure your data isn’t available via data brokers.