How to stop spam calls on Android?

How to stop spam calls on Android?

Spam calls and texts can easily crowd our inbox and our daily time as the numberskeep changing every day and you cannot easily avoid them. They can disrupt yourwork, offering services that you have no interest in, or sometimes even turn out to be a fraudulent call.

Types of spam calls

Spam calls can be classified broadly into:

• Automated calls or Robo-calls where there is a pre-recorded message played outwhen the user picks up the call. These calls are often used for selling a product orservice and telemarketing firms employ this technique to reach more people.Sometimes, this is used for charitable reasons and political campaigns as well.
• Telemarketing calls are the next category. These are not automated and aperson speaks to you about a product or service, trying to sell the same to you.These are real companies and they are in the business of sales.
• Scam calls are another category. These calls aim to scam the people or defraudthem instigating them to reveal financial information like a bank account, PANdetails, etc., which can be later used to scam their money. They can pretend to be acaller from the bank or work for the government to get details about you or your bankaccount.

Blocking spam calls on Android

• a) Carrier services and apps for blocking calls

There are dedicated apps to help you block these spam calls permanently on yourphone. These apps have a dedicated and vast database of numbers marked as spam.Whenever there is a call from any number, it is matched against this database and if found, there is a message alerting you of the same being spam displayed on your phone. You also have the option to make the call go to voicemail directly without picking up the call as well.

Most of these apps are available for free but some might require you to make a minimal subscription to use their services. Truecaller is an example of such an app.

Some carrier services also offer the option to protect users against unwanted spam calls. Similar to the apps, they compare any incoming call from an unknown number with a saved database and alert or block the call if the number is marked as spam.

With apps and carrier services, you can reduce the number of spam calls to a certain extent but not eliminate them.

• b) Blocking calls manually

If you are getting unwanted calls from particular numbers repeatedly, and it is not marked as spam by the carrier service or the app you use, then you can block the same manually on your phone. If you have an Android phone, you can press longer on the number that is calling you and choose the “block” option. In some devices, you may have to do this through contacts settings. But it is very simple and effective when you have to block a few numbers specifically.

• c) Allowing calls only from saved numbers

If you are ok with avoiding calls from people who are not part of your contacts list, then this is the best option so far. This can be done on your android phone by going to the settings of your “phone call” and choosing the blocking or blocked numbers option. Here you will have to choose the “block calls from unidentified callers” or “block numbers except for contacts”, whichever is available. Once done, any calls from callers not identified will be directed to spam.

There are apps for this service as well like “Calls Blacklist – Call Blocker”, which can help you to customize your blocking feature on the phone. The only drawback is that you might miss out on calls from your friends and family if their number is not saved on your phone.

• d) Do not call Registry

This is an option that works well for avoiding telemarketing calls. This is like a DND where your number is registered for not to be called for any telemarketing reasons. However, you will continue to receive survey-related, political informatory calls, and other calls.

You can choose your option based on the kind of spam calls you continue to receiveand block them from disrupting your daily routine.