How to stop robocalls with free solutions from AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile and Sprint
Robocalls have tormented us for years. They’ve interrupted our conversations, dominated our work lines and spread erroneous information across the country. The nation’s Do Not Call registry is pretty worthless at stopping them.
You can spend money on robocall-blocking apps that might provide some relief. Tap or click here if you want to give some of the best robocall-blocking apps a shot.
Apple’s new iOS 13 includes a robocall-blocking feature. In theory, it sends all unknown callers straight to voicemail, but there’s a huge problem the engineers didn’t take into consideration. Tap or click here to enable robocall blocking on your iPhone and learn the disadvantages when doing so.
Then, there’s call screening by Google Assistant through the Phone app, which only works on Pixel phones and select Android phones. It screens your calls and gives you a transcript, but it doesn’t always correctly understand the caller. Tap or click here for more info about this.
Censoring phone calls is a tricky business, but now that the FCC is starting to tackle robocalls, the biggest phone companies are following suit. Each carrier is using unique tactics to fight back. Depending on your carrier, you will have different steps to follow.
Once you start putting your carrier’s tools to good use, you can expect a significant reduction in pre-recorded calls with unlisted or misleading caller IDs. Yes, it’s true.
AT&T
To fight robocalls, AT&T offers a free service for customers called Call Protect that includes features like automatic call blocking and spam alerts. AT&T Call Protect consists of the following:
- Automatic Fraud Blocking: Scans and blocks suspected scam calls, whether they’re automated or not.
- Spam Risk Blocking: Blocks calls or sends them to voicemail if they’re identified as “Spam Risk.”
- Unknown callers: Anyone not in your contact list can be sent straight to voicemail.
- Personal Block List: Build a custom block list for unwanted callers.
- Siri Shortcuts: Allows you to block and report unwanted calls using Siri.
- Custom Call Controls: This lets you set up your calls into categories to accept, block, or send straight to voicemail.
For $3.99 a month, you can sign up for Call Protect Plus. It also includes Automatic Fraud Blocking and the Personal Block List, as well as a few other features:
- Enhanced Caller ID: Gives details about “unknown” callers.
- Reverse Number Lookup: Look up a number you don’t recognize.
Try the free version before signing up for anything else. Call Protect is available by going into your account settings on myAT&T and turning it on. More information is available here.
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Your TV is watching you
I don’t know about you, but when I sit down in my favorite chair to watch TV, the last thing I want to think about is the TV spying on me. While it might not actually be taking pictures of me in my sweats without my hair and makeup done, there are actually TVs out there that spy on you. How? It’s actually quite clever.