Your landline
The honest answer on this page isn't as good as the one for cell phones. We're not going to dress it up.
What you can do depends on what kind of line you have. Most people don't know which kind they've got. So that's where we start.
Which kind of line is it?
It's probably a digital line if your phone service comes from the cable company. Same if the phone came as part of an internet bundle, or if the phone cord runs into the same box your internet runs through.
It's probably a true copper line if you've had the same home phone service for decades, and it goes on working when the power is out.
Not sure? Call your phone company and ask one question: is my home phone digital or copper? That single answer decides everything below. It's worth the phone call.
If it's a digital line
Your provider may have free blocking you can switch on. Ask for it by name.
At AT&T, the digital home phone comes with a free service called Call Protect. There are two versions, and they don't behave the same way:
- Call Protect for AT&T Phone Advanced is on automatically. There's nothing for you to do.
- Call Protect for AT&T Phone has to be turned on.
So if AT&T is your provider, the question to ask is which version you have, and whether it's already on.
What it costs you. The same as every filter in this series. Sooner or later it blocks a call you wanted. A blocked call doesn't ring, so you won't know it came.
Blocking the number that just called
On AT&T's digital home phone you can do this from the handset itself. No computer. No app. Nothing to log into.
Right after the call, press *61 on the phone.
To undo it, press *80.
The list holds up to 100 numbers. Once it's full, one has to come off before a new one goes on.
What it costs you. Almost nothing. It also gains you less than you'd hope. Scam callers change their number constantly, often for every single call. This is worth doing for one person who keeps calling from one number. It does very little against a scam operation.
If it's a true copper line
Here's the part nobody likes.
A true copper landline has no setting to turn on. There's no app, no update, and nothing to switch. The phone on your wall does what it did in 1985, which is ring whenever anybody calls it.
You have three real options.
A call-blocking box. It's a small device that plugs in between the wall jack and the phone. Your calls run through it, and it screens them before the phone rings.
Ask your phone company what they offer. Some have a blocking service even on a copper line. It may cost money. Ask what it blocks, what it costs, and whether you can stop paying for it later.
Move to a digital line. Then everything in the section above is open to you. It usually means a new bill, or folding the phone in with your internet.
We're not naming a box or a service on this page. We couldn't check any of them ourselves, and this site doesn't hand you a name it hasn't checked.
What we're not going to pretend
This page gives you less than the iPhone and Android pages in this series, and we'd rather say so than pad it out.
A copper landline is the hardest phone in the house to protect. The people most likely to still have one are the very people these calls go after. That isn't fair. It's just true.
There's one thing that helps no matter what kind of line you have, and it doesn't come from the phone company. It's knowing how the call itself works, so you can hear it coming while it's happening.
Read how the call goes, and the three steps. Then back to the series.
