Do you need to silence nuisance calls?

We have a call blocker device and have had attempted calls from the areas you talk about. Our device asks unknown callers to announce who they are. If they do not do so our phone does not even ring (they never do announce themselves). If they do say who they are we have several options, accept number once, always accept number, transfer to answerphone or reject call. This works really well for us and we haven’t had one nuisance call come through since we bought it

If you are using a call blocker that uses white list technology (you program in the numbers you want to get through and all other numbers are intercepted) then recently spoofed numbers will be blocked.

Great to hear your device is working so well Sandra

They haven’t “got their hands on” anything.

When they make a call, they have equipment that sends a fake caller ID number out. This number could be a valid number that belongs to someone else, a number in a valid area code but which isn’t actually in use, a number from a valid area code but with not enough digits to be a valid number, a number from a valid area code but with too many digits to be a valid number, a number from an area code that doesn’t actually exist or just a random string of digits.

They change this number each time they call rendering useless any call blockers that block solely using CLI data. The only call blockers that are effective are those that issue a verbal challenge to all unknown callers, with the called party’s phone ringing only after successful completion of the challenge.

Hard to block but note the number and do not answer their calls if you do answer and you realise the sort of call it is cut them off do not listen at all If you listen it only encourages more calls

There are call blocking apps for mobile phones available, this is something NTS Scams Team has not yet done research into so I can’t advise on which ones work best.

You can make a note of the number that calls you and report it to the ICO at https://ico.org.uk/concerns/nuisance-calls-and-messages/

There is a version of trueCall that landline and mobile providers can install on the telephone network itself thereby giving all of their customers instant access to effective call-blocking technology.

So far, one landline provider (Sky Shield) has installed something that appears to work in much the same fashion as this, but mobile providers have yet to do so.