Turn on your phone's own protection
Your phone already knows how to hold back calls from numbers it doesn't recognize. On most phones it's switched off until somebody turns it on, and almost nobody does, because it's three taps deep and nobody mentions it.
All of it is free. Most of it takes ten minutes. And it's the only protection on this site that works without you having to do anything in the moment.
Every one of these settings has a cost, and the pages below say what it is. A phone that blocks more calls also misses more calls. The one you miss could be the clinic. Better to know that before you start, not after the pharmacy can't reach you.
Start with your phone
- iPhone. Screening unknown callers, call filters, and filtering unknown senders in Messages.
- Android: Samsung and Pixel. Caller ID and spam protection, and the one feature that listens during a call and warns you.
- Your phone company. AT&T, Verizon and T-Mobile all block at the network, free, before the call reaches your phone. T-Mobile's takes one dialed code and no app at all.
- A landline. The answer depends on whether it's a real copper line or a digital one.
- Apps, texts and the extras. Blocking a number after it calls. Reporting a scam text, free. Third-party blocking apps, and what they cost you in privacy. And why the Do Not Call registry doesn't do what people think.
If you only do one thing and you have a cell phone: turn on your phone company's free blocking. It's on the phone company page, and it needs no app.
The three risks that apply to all of it
Each page repeats the risks that are specific to that setting. These three apply everywhere, and they're the reason this series exists.
1. You will miss a call you wanted
Every phone company says so in its own terms. T-Mobile puts it plainly: turning on blocking "might block calls you want."
The call most likely to go missing comes from a number you've never saved. The clinic. The pharmacy's automated line. A hospital. A callback from a doctor's office. A delivery driver. A jury summons.
The fix takes two minutes and works on every phone. Put the numbers you need into your contacts. Your doctor. Your dentist. The pharmacy. Your bank. Anyone in your contacts always rings through, and Apple recommends exactly this, by name.
Then glance at voicemail and at the filtered list once a week. Every one of these features keeps what it held back. Nothing disappears.
2. None of it stops a call wearing a familiar number
Caller ID can be made to show any name and any number, including your daughter's and your bank's. Screening only holds back numbers your phone doesn't know. So a call faking a number you do know rings straight through.
That's the case these scams actually use, and no setting on this page closes it. What closes it is a code word agreed in advance and knowing the shape of the call.
3. Nothing is watching once you answer
Every setting in this series decides whether your phone rings. After you pick up, they're finished. The single exception is a Google Pixel, and the newest Samsung phones, which listen during the call and can warn you, and even Google says that won't catch everything.
The real risk here isn't technical. It's the feeling of safety. Somebody who believes their phone filters scams answers with less care. Every setting here thins out the traffic. None of them is a reason to trust a voice.
That's what your phone can do. Here is what it can't, and here are the three steps that still work when the call gets through anyway.
For the moment after you've answered, there's the pause button: one rehearsed way to end the call that needs no setting and no app.
