Blocking "unknown & Harassing Callers" There Oughta Be A Way!

dionnfr said:

I agree with you, however there are some companies who block outgoing callers name, mine is one and so is a lot of aerospace companies.

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But does it also mask your phone number?

The OP's issue isn't so much with :

UNKNOWN NAME
1-555-867-5309

as with:

UNKNOWN CALLER
(No Number)

The latter is known as a "blocked (CID) call" and is what I had blocked on my landlines, like the OP is talking about (Anyone who had CID block their phone number received the message "The person you are calling does not accept blocked calls. Please hang up, dial *82 and then the number to try again" - *82 being the command to unblock one's number for that call only.

Applephile said:

Doesn't jailbreaking void ones warranty? And didn't Apple just release an update which blocks "jailbreakme.com" from working?

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4.0.2 does indeed patch the exploit used by jailbreakme.com to jailbreak your iPhone - this is the most recent update. One of the first steps in fixing one's phone if something goes wrong is to "Restore to Factory Settings" which undoes jailbreaking, but yes, they can deny warranty claims if your phone is jailbroken - but we also have plenty of users who've JB'd and received warranty work anyway.

alFR said:

You'd probably get more results posting a feature request here.

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Or to you service carrier directly.

Call blocking on a cell phone? It will NEVER happen. AT&T wants to sell you air time and blocking calls will not further that goal. It is the last feature a greedy cell phone company would want.

Well, OK they might decide to sell you that feature for say $10 a month

How about blocking unwanted marketing Text messages....as far as I know, this is no app to stop these. Since I only occasionally text (I use email, or call), I have no need for an unlimited texting plan.

So I pay for every text message, whether wanted or not.

I'm all for this, not that i get unwanted calls. At least here in Ireland you don't pay to receive calls like you do in US/Canada (what a backwards system that is...) so if you get a harrassing call it doesn't cost you.

My tip to people over here who get unwanted calls is to take it and put the phone down, leaving the harrasser pay for the whole call. Usually they get bored of wasting their money and stop calling.

I know this doesn't work in US due to you being charged for calls and the fact that local land line calls are free.

EDIT: A poll would be useful here. You can then count how many 'agree's' you have.

I fully sympathize with the original poster as I, for the last couple of months, have been harassed by an unbalanced person. I am surprised that AT&T does not offer something very similar to what I have from Rogers in Canada.

I partially resolved my problem with Rogers' Call Manager. There it gives me the option to either block a particular number or send it to voicemail. For "unknown" numbers it gives me the same choices.

In the case of my particular lunatic, she realised very early on that I was sending her calls to voicemail automatically (I did initially not want to provoke her by blocking her due to the inflexible message from Rogers).

She then decided to block her number and this could only be intercepted by me if I decided to restrict unknown numbers. I could not restrict unknown numbers as a few people (a friend in hospital for example) has a "blocked number" on his phone in the hospital and did not want to send them to voicemail or block them en masse.

So AT&T offers no "Call Manager" feature (for which I pay $5 a month)?

As of right now the only way would be using google voice but that would require a different phone number.

the new google number would send the call to your existing phone or send to voicemail or treat the phone number as spam and your phone won't ring and the voicemail will be marked as spam and you won't get a notification.

bender o said:

I use iBlacklist on Cydia. It works great, you can choose what message the caller receives, voicemail, busy tone or others and when you get a cal from one of the blocked numbers you et a "tiny phone" in the status bar letting you know and you can go in the app and check who it was.

Hope it helps

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Bandolier said:

iBlacklist

/thread

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markyr17 said:

Don't be a girly... Jailbreak and use iblacklist

Apple/AT&T won't add this

/discussion

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Do not give iBlacklist your money! They wont transfer your purchase to another phone, that means if you swap your phone at a genius bar or if you upgrade to a newer iPhone you have to re-buy the app! They pulled this on me and I stopped using it rather then pay another $12 just to get it onto my new iPhone.

the solution to your problem is AT&T's "Smart Limits" you can block phone numbers with this additional service which I believe costs under $5 a month...long term valued customers such as my self get this for free...call AT&T complain through at least three levels of customer service and you will probably get it for free also

Peterg2 said:

So AT&T offers no "Call Manager" feature (for which I pay $5 a month)?

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yes AT&T does it's called "Smart Limits"

SAD*FACED*CLOWN said:

the solution to your problem is AT&T's "Smart Limits" you can block phone numbers with this additional service which I believe costs under $5 a month...

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Just a question: how do you BLOCK a phone number that you can't see or know because when you get the call it says BLOCKED?

Black&Tan said:

How about blocking unwanted marketing Text messages....as far as I know, this is no app to stop these. Since I only occasionally text (I use email, or call), I have no need for an unlimited texting plan.

So I pay for every text message, whether wanted or not.

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I am in the same situation. I don't mind paying for occasional texts from friends, I hate having to pay for the others. AT&T's answer is to either pay up or block all texts, and I don't want either of those choices.

I agree with the OP on the need to be able to block certain calls.

I really don't want to JB my iPhone either. It's not about legal or illegal, I just don't feel the need to.

SAD*FACED*CLOWN said:

the solution to your problem is AT&T's "Smart Limits" you can block phone numbers with this additional service which I believe costs under $5 a month...long term valued customers such as my self get this for free...call AT&T complain through at least three levels of customer service and you will probably get it for free also

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Yes but your limited on how many numbers you can block last i checked it was 10.

Mliii said:

Just a question: how do you BLOCK a phone number that you can't see or know because when you get the call it says BLOCKED?

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I had that quandary and the only half-way solution is to send such a message automatically to voicemail. The other alternative, namely blocking "unknown" results in the bad and potentially good being blocked.

SAD*FACED*CLOWN said:

yes AT&T does it's called "Smart Limits"

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You are right although the "Smart Limits" seems geared more for families with kids. However, it clearly enables you to block incoming numbers:

http://www.wireless.att.com/learn/articles-resources/parental-controls/smart-limits.jsp

I'm able to block anyone, or any number I want to. I go to my account on AT&T and set that up in there.

Its not up to a phone, whether it be an iphone or a nokia, etc., to block it. (you can, yes I know) but its up to the carrier.
So I can't see why anyone is blaming Apple for not doing something they don't control. Yes, there are apps that will do that. But apps are only good on the iphone. If you had a samsung, or Kyocera, or Nokia phone...there are no apps. This is why its up to the carrier to provide the service.

And AT&T does have this service. I'm using it myself and also have it on my children's phones as well.


However, that being said you can use iBlacklist if you want to jailbreak. Another way you can do this is just make a contact called something like "DO NOT ANSWER". Then use a silent ringtone and assign it to that contact. So everytime someone calls, just add their number to that contact. So you won't ever hear them call. And almost all robo calls will not leave a voice mail.

Just my two cents.

iceterminal said:

I'm able to block anyone, or any number I want to.
Another way you can do this is just make a contact called something like "DO NOT ANSWER". Then use a silent ringtone and assign it to that contact. So everytime someone calls, just add their number to that contact.

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All good ideas, but, again, the problem with BLOCKED numbers is that you don't KNOW the number to block or to add to your Do Not Answer contact...

ChrisA said:

Call blocking on a cell phone? It will NEVER happen. AT&T wants to sell you air time and blocking calls will not further that goal. It is the last feature a greedy cell phone company would want.

Well, OK they might decide to sell you that feature for say $10 a month

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just so you know it is fairly standard pratice on the cell phone companies to give you the first incoming minute free. The logic behind this is so you do not get charged for a wrong number. Those calls are pretty quick and short. A block number will normally result in a hand up any how.

There are some business that if they call me I will not even waste the time talking to them. As soon as they id themselves I hang up.

I still can't belive you in the US get charged for recieving calls and texts

I agree there should be a simple way to do block incoming numbers, and text messages, I also agree that it would be better on the network side simply because it will block the call no matter what (ie give a disconnected tone) because if it was a phone app then when your phone was off, or in offline mode, then the unwanted would go to voicemail and the person would know that it is a valid number.


to the OP as your in the US you best and simpleist way is just to use google voice (you lucky thing, can't get it in the UK) sure you would get a new number but the benefits would outweigh the one negative of having to tell the contacts that actually call or text you your new number.
a person said that if the person had your true mobile number they could still call you but I would just get AT&T to change you number (and don't give that mobile number to anyone) and then just use the google voice number for everything, any unwanted calls just block them - simples

watch this about GV http://www.google.com/googlevoice/about.html

Mliii said:

All good ideas, but, again, the problem with BLOCKED numbers is that you don't KNOW the number to block or to add to your Do Not Answer contact...

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Yes, there is that initial call you'll answer. But thats it. And honestly, I've added about 25 numbers to my blocked contact. But since I've done that I rarely have gotten anymore calls in the past 3 months (knock on wood).
So its been a good strategy for me, in conjunction with using my carrier (ATT) to block unwanted numbers.

ATT will block your calls for like $10 a month... its an add on feature (what a rip off) Should be free...

iceterminal said:

Yes, there is that initial call you'll answer. But thats it.

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Is what you are saying that you answer the FIRST call and somehow your phone will then know the number you can add to the blocked call list?
I don't think that's how it works. You never see the number. Your phone has no idea what number it is that's calling you. Therefore, you can't block it because you don't know what number to block.
I'm not sure with a cell phone, but I do know that's how it worked with landline phones. Hence, the ability to have a service that says "This caller does not answer blocked calls. Please unblock your number by dialing *87 and try your call again."- something to that effect. That's what we're talking about here- a service, an app, whatever, something that allows you to block UNKNOWN callers from getting through. That was the OP's exact point and I still like the concept.
I don't want to have to have to add actual numbers that I want blocked. I know you can pay AT&T to do that. What the OP (and I agree) wants is a way that when you get a call from BLOCKED, any number that is blocked- the caller gets the same sort of message that they would get on a landline phone- namely, I don't answer BLOCKED calls, so unblock, call back and I'll decide whether I want to speak to you.

iblacklist

sangreal said:

iblacklist

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Yes, except the OP was talking about a non JB phone.

To unblock BLOCKED calls, the service TrapCall (http://www.trapcall.com) used to be free, but now they charge. I still think it's a great feature, I just don't know if I'd be paying for it now.