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Author Topic: How to stop unwanted calls to previous user of my cellphone number? Frank Cox Film God Posts: 2234 From: Melville Saskatchewan Canada Registered: Apr 2011 posted 01-14-2013 01:23 AM                        ringtone  |  IP: Logged Leo Enticknap Film God Posts: 7474 From: Loma Linda, CA Registered: Jul 2000 posted 01-14-2013 09:27 AM                        quote: Joe Redifer I'm surprised that people who develop software for phones don't let you block calls at the phone level yet. Punch in a number or a recent call and add it to the block list. I have a conspiracy theory about that, which is that the phone companies do not want such software to enter mainstream use because of the likely loss of revenue if large numbers of junk calls are not answered. By the same token, on British landlines you can subscribe to a service called anonymous call reject. It does what it says on the tin - if a call is received without any caller display data, it's blocked at the exchange and the caller gets a recorded message saying 'This line does not accept anonymous calls - please try again without withholding your number.' The phone companies are required to offer ACR by law, but you won't find it advertised in any of their literature or websites, it costs a lot (£5 a month from my telco) - many times more than it costs the telco to provide - and if you call them asking for ACR to be put on your line, you'll be given an intensive, carefully rehearsed script trying to talk you out of it. My guess is that for every subscriber that takes ACR they lose a boatload of cash in unsolicited marketing calls that go unanswered, and so they do the bare minimum they have to by law and use every trick in the book to keep the number of takers down. By the same token, I wouldn't be surprised if the Apple and Android app stores refuse to distribute software that is effective at filtering out unwanted calls at the phone level.  |  IP: Logged Mitchell Dvoskin Phenomenal Film Handler Posts: 1869 From: West Milford, NJ, USA Registered: Jan 2001 posted 01-14-2013 09:57 AM                     Most land line phone companies in the USA offer anonymous call blocking. Telemarketers/Collection agencies get around this by sending "fake" caller id. I know Verizon Wireless has per number call blocking, where you can block numbers via your account on their web site. You may want to consider switching carriers. I had the exact same problem as Leo with a company issued cell phone. A collection agency was after the prior owner. Eventually I contacted the attorney general's office in the state where the collection agency was based and filed a complaint. It cost me nothing, did everything online, and that made the problem go away.  |  IP: Logged Frank Cox Film God Posts: 2234 From: Melville Saskatchewan Canada Registered: Apr 2011 posted 01-14-2013 12:26 PM                        I get a lot of phone calls from "unknown number" that are actually legitimate. A lot of large companies have their actual numbers blocked when phoning out, probably through some kind of central corporate switch. If I didn't answer "unknown number', I would miss a lot of legitimate calls.  |  IP: Logged Mike Blakesley Film God Posts: 12767 From: Forsyth, Montana Registered: Jun 99 posted 01-14-2013 08:27 PM                        Yeah, Caller ID is kind of useless these days for a business. About 3/4 of the calls are from "Wireless Caller" and most of the rest are "Unknown," "Private" or "Unavailable." Not that we really care who calls, but in a small town it's nice to know who it is ahead of time, that way you can often sort of get a head start on the call before you even answer the phone.  |  IP: Logged Bruce Hansen Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 847 From: Stone Mountain, GA, USA Registered: Dec 1999 posted 01-16-2013 07:11 PM                     I don't know if this works with cell phones, but with land lines (in America) you tell them this: "according to federal law, you are not to call me again". If they call you again, they get fined.  |  IP: Logged Mike Blakesley Film God Posts: 12767 From: Forsyth, Montana Registered: Jun 99 posted 01-16-2013 10:51 PM                        Has anyone ever actually gotten fined based on that? And if so, have they paid?  |  IP: Logged Sean Weitzel Jedi Master Film Handler Posts: 619 From: Vacaville, CA (1790 miles west of Rockwall) Registered: Dec 1999 posted 01-23-2013 07:00 PM                     I was chatting with a co worker about this very subject today. Apparently the IOS6 os for iPhone has a nifty "do not disturb" feature. You can turn it on and then set whitelists to allow certain numbers through. It may not be as fully featured as Brad is envisioning but it's a start.  |  IP: Logged Frank Angel Film God Posts: 5305 From: Brooklyn NY USA Registered: Dec 1999 posted 02-01-2013 04:28 AM                        I've got VoIP service with Ooma -- yah, that's the name. After you buy their rather pricey modem at around $160, their service for all international calls is free except for your local taxes and 911 fees that you city & state may tack on. So for a monthy $5 bucks, I unlimited national calling and a host of features that Verizon landline service used to cost me nearly $40 a month without voice mail. The sound quality is as good as a copper wire line and they are rated #1 of all the VoIP services. Ooma has even more feature with their Premium service for $10 a month INCLUDING Brad's dream feature -- Privacy blocking. You can block up to 40 numbers and those numbers will never get thru, or you can have them go directly to voice mail, your choice, but thing is, you never get a ring. They are here: Ooma VoIP -- Rated # VOice Quality & service. FREE plus taxes & 1 time cost of modem  |  IP: Logged Leo Enticknap Film God Posts: 7474 From: Loma Linda, CA Registered: Jul 2000 posted 02-01-2013 07:54 AM                        In the end I didn't get time to go in to the T-Mobile store and investigate changing numbers before heading back to England in mid-January. If, when I'm next in SoCal at around Easter time, I discover about 20 voicemails from Mr. Johnson's creditors, I'll take action then. But given that I have now had that number since January 2012, I'd hope that they'd be dying down by now. There again, if Mr. Johnson is still out there and giving people that number (in order to avoid being traced), it would explain why they aren't. Thanks for everyone's thoughts.  |  IP: Logged Chris Slycord Film God Posts: 2986 From: 청주시, 경북도, South Korea Registered: Mar 2007 posted 02-01-2013 05:53 PM                     quote: Bruce Hansen I don't know if this works with cell phones, but with land lines (in America) you tell them this: "according to federal law, you are not to call me again". If they call you again, they get fined. The only problem with this is that it's perfectly legal to use a device or software to give fake Caller ID data. So it could be hard to find the real number of the asshole that keeps on calling you.  |  IP: Logged

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