6 thoughts on “Fighting spam callers on the iPhone”

1. These are good tips … I had done the same with a dedicated spam ringtone, but a “silent” one is a really good idea. Other things I’ve done to help is to use a Google Voice number to give out as much as possible (you can easily block numbers via Google Voice), and with Verizon I can block a few numbers for free as well.

   My experience is that spammers do often change the number, but often use the same number for several days in a row. Blocking them gives at least a few days of relief. The Google blocking is nice too in that it says “this phone is not in service” which might help get you off their spam list.

2. That’s exactly what I’ve been doing, and when they start using a new number, iOS makes it easy to add them to my existing “Idiot Telemarketers” address book entry.

3. I had to do this a couple years ago when I was in the hospital and the same spammer kept calling me. He called me 38 times in a two hour period.

   I almost answered the phone a second time just to congratulate him on being such a massive asshole.

   I can’t remember if I was able to set up a custom vibration pattern on that version of iOS. I think I just turned vibrate off and the ringer on.

4. I’ve been doing this for many years now. My Spam contact has a couple hundred numbers.
   One thing I also do, just to be a completist, is mark the number itself with a custom “Spam” label for the type of phone number (instead of “Work,” “Home,” etc).

   Every so often I will dump the list of numbers to my blog as a kind of public service. 🙂

5. Consider yourselves lucky. Here in Australia, most spam calls from from “Blocked Number”… this normally would be good thing, however i have a few family members that have blocked numbers due to their work, so i can’t filter anyone 🙁

6. Another thing you can do is use the Number Guru app – https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/number-guru/id431750800?mt=8&ls=1 – to help manage, control and ignore spammers.