If you’re home is like mine, you get robocalls constantly throughout the day. We are on the Do Not Call Registry, but it doesn’t seem to matter. The robocallers get through, sort of.
My husband Nick Taylor is a writer and works at home. He doesn’t even bother to pick up the phone anymore when it rings, unless caller i.d. alerts him that it is someone he knows.
He reviews the calls at the end of the day, and returns any that he missed. That’s a pretty sure-fire strategy to avoid the robocallers.
In the meantime, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) produced this video and offers 5 tips to block robocalls. It’s not clear that they do the trick 100 percent of the time, but it may be worth it to check them out.
- Ask your telephone company if it allows customers to block calls from multiple phone numbers. It may charge for this service. You might also want to check out the call-blocking services offered by other companies, including Voice over Internet Providers.
- Search online shopping sites for “call blocker.” There are number of blockers from different companies and it’s a good idea to read the reviews and see if one works for you.
- Put a “special information tone” that signals a non-working number at the beginning of your voicemail or answering machine message.
- If you have a smartphone, look for call-blocking apps.
- Use a “virtual phone line” with call screening options, forward that number to your actual phone, and only give out the virtual number. This option might work if you’re willing to change your phone number and are tech-savvy enough to set up call forwarding and screening.
Robocall Alert
