The most overlooked way to stop spam calls on Android and iPhone
Spam calls are probably the most annoying daily problem encountered with smartphones. Either it’s a cold call from a salesperson, ridiculous spam, or a robocall. The good news is that you can prevent a good portion of these calls by just doing one simple thing, and it works for iPhone and Android.
An option you overlooked: the National Do Not Call Registry
It turns out that one of the most effective tools for blocking unwanted calls predates the smartphone revolution entirely. I’m talking, of course, about the National Do Not Call Registry, managed by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), which remains the first line of consumer defense in the United States.
Created in 2003, this federal database was designed to protect consumers from unwanted telemarketing calls and, contrary to what one might think, given its age, it is fully compatible with modern cell phone numbers on Android and iPhone devices, not just traditional landlines.
It’s essentially a government-backed level of protection that works regardless of your specific device or carrier. Consumers can add their personal landline or wireless phone numbers to the database by visiting the official website, usually available at donotcall.gov, or by calling the toll-free number from the phone they wish to register. Personally, I have found that the website is sometimes down, so you may prefer to call instead.
When using the Website, you must verify your registration via a confirmation email within 72 hours to ensure that the request is processed. Once a number is permanently added to the registry, it remains there until the number is disconnected or the owner requests its removal.
Keep in mind, however, that if you decide to do this, it’s not an instant solution. Once a consumer registers their number, telemarketers are legally given a grace period of up to 31 days to remove the number from their calling lists.
Why should you register?
When you put your number on this list, you are taking advantage of federal law to deter compliant businesses from making contact. The main incentive for registration is the severe financial penalty imposed on violators. Legitimate telemarketing companies are required by law to search the registry every 31 days and sync their internal lists to ensure they are not contacting registered numbers. Businesses that fail to comply and call a number on the registry can face civil penalties of more than $50,000 per violation. This massive financial risk acts as a powerful deterrent for reputable companies, significantly reducing the herd of incoming calls.
In addition, the registration constitutes an effective filtration system for the user. Once a number is on the registry for the required 31 days, the nature of unknown incoming calls changes. Since law-abiding businesses will stop calling, any unsolicited sales calls received after this time can be immediately identified as a likely scam. You probably fall victim to scams from time to time, but this ensures that you are completely sure that every unwanted call you receive is a likely scam – or at least, a telemarketer violating federal law.
This won’t stop everything
While the National Do Not Call Registry is a powerful tool, it is not a silver bullet that will eliminate unwanted disruption. For starters, the FTC’s regulations include specific exemptions that allow certain types of organizations to continue calling registered numbers. For example, political organizations, charities and telephone interviewers are not covered by the registry restrictions. Therefore, during election or fundraising times, users may still experience a high volume of perfectly legal interruptions, regardless of their registration status.
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Additionally, the registry allows calls from businesses with which the consumer has an “established business relationship.” If a user has purchased a product, submitted a request, or made a payment to a business within a certain time period (usually up to 18 months after a purchase), that business reserves the right to call until the consumer explicitly asks it to stop. This often surprises consumers because they may not realize that purchasing a product online technically authorizes the seller to make telemarketing calls. To stop these specific calls, the consumer must make a direct and specific request to the company to be included on that entity’s internal list of do not call numbers.
The registry is also ineffective against criminals. Robo-callers and scammers who operate illegal call centers, often located overseas, have no respect for U.S. federal law or FTC regulations. These bad actors use “spoofing” technology to falsify their caller ID information, making it difficult for law enforcement to track them. Since they are already committing fraud or identity theft, the threat of a civil penalty for a right not to call violation makes no sense to them. Therefore, even if the registry manages to remove the layer of nuisance calls from legitimate businesses, it cannot block the torrent of illegal spam calls.
For complete protection, the registry should be used in conjunction with other tools, such as unknown caller silencing features or carrier-grade spam blocking applications. However, this will probably eliminate a number of them – at least the legal ones.
