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spaceballl

macrumors 68030
Original poster
Nov 2, 2003
2,936
359
San Francisco, CA
Hi there!

I'm sick of getting spam phone calls from politicians, marketing groups, etc. Is it possible to have all of those go to VM, except the #s in my phone? I know I can do this as part of Do Not Disturb, but I'd like to make it the norm.
 
Hi there!



I'm sick of getting spam phone calls from politicians, marketing groups, etc. Is it possible to have all of those go to VM, except the #s in my phone? I know I can do this as part of Do Not Disturb, but I'd like to make it the norm.


Afraid not. You can only block a number individually it seems.

If you're jailbroken by any chance, there's an app called 'iBlacklist' that whitelists the address book. Haven't tried it myself though.

I might be stating the obvious but have you add your number to the DoNotCall registry. That's helped me to some extent.
 
May I ask why DND doesn't work? Rather confused why you need it "part of the norm". Why not just make DND "the norm" and be done with it? :confused:
 
May I ask why DND doesn't work? Rather confused why you need it "part of the norm". Why not just make DND "the norm" and be done with it? :confused:
Let me end your confusion... I use DND to block ALL phone numbers except for my immediate family. I use this to make sure that work doesn't interfere with my personal life from 8PM to 6AM. I also use it to silence all other notifications on my phone.

During the rest of the day, I'd still like all my normal notifications, and I'd like calls blocked from everyone except people in my contacts.
 
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Let me end your confusion... I use DND to block ALL phone numbers except for my immediate family. I use this to make sure that work doesn't interfere with my personal life from 8PM to 6AM. I also use it to silence all other notifications on my phone.

During the rest of the day, I'd still like all my normal notifications, and I'd like calls blocked from everyone except people in my contacts.

Understood. I suppose this is still possible with a few taps going into DND settings, though I can see that as being a nusiance.

Are you jailbroken? I used an app called "callblocker" back before DND was available in iOS. It allowed for setting profiles. That may be of some help.
 
I'd like calls blocked from everyone except people in my contacts.

Something to consider: How would a school / hospital / police agency reach you in an emergency regarding a family member?

I mention this rhetorically; don't feel a need to answer, just food for thought.
 
Hi there!

I'm sick of getting spam phone calls from politicians, marketing groups, etc. Is it possible to have all of those go to VM, except the #s in my phone? I know I can do this as part of Do Not Disturb, but I'd like to make it the norm.

Did you find a way of doing this? I just found this post in a google search looking for the same thing.
 
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Something to consider: How would a school / hospital / police agency reach you in an emergency regarding a family member?

I mention this rhetorically; don't feel a need to answer, just food for thought.
[doublepost=1487735931][/doublepost] They'd leave a voicemail
 
You'd get notified of voicemails from blocked calls? I don't believe it works that way.

Looks like you're right. I like that even better. Who wants to talk to the hospital anyway. You can't get sick if you don't talk to a doctor. #Fact
 
May I ask why DND doesn't work? Rather confused why you need it "part of the norm". Why not just make DND "the norm" and be done with it? :confused:
DND silences ALL notifications. I would like to also get text notifications from contacts. It would be nice if all interaction with those in my contacts would come through.
 
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[doublepost=1523630001][/doublepost]DND silences ALL notifications. I would like to also get text notifications from contacts. It would be nice if all interaction with those in my contacts would come through.
There is an "emergency bypass" option for contacts that can be enabled on a pet-contact basis. The downside with that is that aside from bypassing DND even for messages it also bypasses the silent switch on the phone and will make it ring for those contacts.
 
Let me end your confusion... I use DND to block ALL phone numbers except for my immediate family. I use this to make sure that work doesn't interfere with my personal life from 8PM to 6AM. I also use it to silence all other notifications on my phone.

During the rest of the day, I'd still like all my normal notifications, and I'd like calls blocked from everyone except people in my contacts.
[doublepost=1526002327][/doublepost]I use Privacy Star, it isn't free but it clears up 99% of the calls. There is another robot-blocker that just sends the call to a fake VM that does the same robot non-sense. I would love it if they could just whitelist my contact list and send the rest to Voicemail. If you can create that app, I got $4 for you!
 
[doublepost=1526002327][/doublepost]I use Privacy Star, it isn't free but it clears up 99% of the calls. There is another robot-blocker that just sends the call to a fake VM that does the same robot non-sense. I would love it if they could just whitelist my contact list and send the rest to Voicemail. If you can create that app, I got $4 for you!
Do Not Disturb can be set up that way for calls, however it would also silence other notifications too...which looking back to when this thread was started is basically the crux of the issue.
 
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Boy! Four year old thread resurrected. But sympathize with op's original predicament (also hate the never ending political robo calls).

A bit of an effort to set up, but works well for me: assign ringtone and vibration to only family and friend contacts. Set the defaults on the device to be a silent tone (plenty of those out there, just search) and no vibration pattern. Add a call blocker app or two and you have a near silent phone re: calls. If an unwanted caller sneaks through, no noise, and if listening to music/podcast, that the sound cuts out lets me know unwanted and to just wait for audio to pick up where left off. Can then block number.
 
ATT offer for free an app called “Call Protect” which I find works great. It uses it own know telemarketer/spam list to black number from calling. You can add to them as needed. Has near eliminated these calls for me.

Might be an old thread but the marketer are hammering our cell phone more and more. The government Do Not Call list is a horrible joke on us!
 
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ATT offer for free an app called “Call Protect” which I find works great. It uses it own know telemarketer/spam list to black number from calling. You can add to them as needed. Has near eliminated these calls for me.
FWIW.... I'm on ATT and tried that app the other day. Frankly, I found it pretty useless. The very first spam call I received after installing it was identified as either spam or potential fraud (can't remember which) in the Call Protect log.... but the phone rang anyway. So.... UNINSTALL.

Paul
 
FWIW.... I'm on ATT and tried that app the other day. Frankly, I found it pretty useless. The very first spam call I received after installing it was identified as either spam or potential fraud (can't remember which) in the Call Protect log.... but the phone rang anyway. So.... UNINSTALL.

Paul

At the end of yesterday Call Protect saved me from 18 telemarketer calls. They did not even ring and some calls were like 5 calls in a single minute. It the Call Protect app has not got a lot of complaints, you phone WILL ring giving you the option to manually block it. I would assume if enough users do this the Call Protect would start stopping it from ringing.

The Call Protect app is supposed to let some calls though for you to decide or you could miss calls you want. If it is a know telemarketer or spammer, you phone will NOT ring.

UNINSTALL was a mistake on your part, but enjoy those calls.
 
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Uninstall was not a mistake on my part. I did it very deliberately ;) Since many (most?) spam calls are using spoofed caller ID, I figured that the app would be nowhere near 100% effective so out it went. My choice.

Does anyone make an IOS app that can do what our new ATT cordless phone system does? It answers all calls that are not on the "allow" list or in its phone book with a message saying that calls to this number are being screened and to press # if you want to be connected. The system does not ring at all unless the caller is on the "allow" list or they press #. So far it has stopped 100% of our spam / robo callers to the house without blocking a single desired caller. You can even add text strings to the "allow" list so it will allow calls from (for example) "CVS" or "ATT" regardless of what number they call from.

Paul
 
Uninstall was not a mistake on my part. I did it very deliberately ;) Since many (most?) spam calls are using spoofed caller ID, I figured that the app would be nowhere near 100% effective so out it went. My choice.

Does anyone make an IOS app that can do what our new ATT cordless phone system does? It answers all calls that are not on the "allow" list or in its phone book with a message saying that calls to this number are being screened and to press # if you want to be connected. The system does not ring at all unless the caller is on the "allow" list or they press #. So far it has stopped 100% of our spam / robo callers to the house without blocking a single desired caller.
I would like to find the same product. I thought someone mentioned "Wide Protect" or similar in another thread, but I have yet to research it.

You can even add text strings to the "allow" list so it will allow calls from (for example) "CVS" or "ATT" regardless of what number they call from.

Paul
Anything in caller ID can be spoofed, including name, so that may be a point where they can leak through.
 
I would like to find the same product. I thought someone mentioned "Wide Protect" or similar in another thread, but I have yet to research it.


Anything in caller ID can be spoofed, including name, so that may be a point where they can leak through.
I am going to run the AT&T app and evaluate after two weeks. In my experience apps like this need time to learn how to manage calls.

I have recently been plagued by numerous calls “from the US government that want to give me $9,000. I’m talking multiple calls a day all from different numbers. One guy admitted he was calling from China and yes indeed the call was a scam. He told me that he’d take my number off the list but the calls kept coming. It was driving me nutty. I went to the bother to put my phone on constant do not disturb except for those in my contact list and then also went into each of my close contacts to allow for bypass texting. However, even in do not disturb mode the 3rd call in a row from the same number will come through and ring in case of an emergency.

Then I found the ATT Call Protect app and installed it yesterday. OMG, those scam suckers tried to call me 21 times yesterday but none got through. This app has been super for me. Thank you ATT! So far 0 scammers, robocalls or telemarketers have come through - happy camper here.
 
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