How to Block Unwanted Calls and Find Out Who Called You Anyway
Spammers and scammers will always take their chances by calling your line, whether it is available or not. Even if your number is listed on the national Do Not Call Registry, they will still try their luck. If you don’t want to continue receiving their calls, your best bet is to block the number. However, before you block the number, you might want to be sure it doesn’t belong to an important client.
The good news is that you can now know who owns the unknown number calling your line. After discovering who it is, you can decide whether to block them, blacklist their number, or even report them. Let’s discuss how you can block unwanted calls after discovering who called you.
Effective Methods to Find Out Who Called You
Before we discuss how you can block unwanted calls, let’s first see how you can unravel the secret of your mystery caller. There are different methods for doing that, including the old methods you know and a newer method like a reverse lookup. Below are the top two ways to find out the identity of the strange number that called you.
1. Reverse Lookup
The number one method, and our favorite, is to do a reverse phone search on the number. Many sites and applications like WhoCallMe exist to help you discover who called you from this number bugging your phone. The process is simple and takes only a few minutes because the sites typically need to search a wide database. These sites are linked to millions of databases of accessible public records that are constantly updated to ensure the information provided is current.
Reverse phone lookup is very effective because of the type of information you can discover through it. You can discover the caller’s name, past and current addresses, email addresses, and other phone numbers besides the one you’re searching for. You can also find deeper information like their court or criminal records, marital details, educational background, etc. The best part is that all of this information is provided for free, depending on the lookup service you choose.
WhoCallMe is one of many free lookup services offering this same level of information. You’re probably wondering if they are legal; how can they provide this much information about someone? They are linked to accessible databases, including government records and social media data; the access is completely authorized.
WhoCallMe, for instance, has access to check the US area codes. Also, the search is 100% anonymous – meaning the owner of the number can never know about the search.
2. Contact Phone Company
Another effective method for discovering who called you is by calling your phone company. This method works if the call becomes too consistent and constitutes harassment or a threat to life. You can call your mobile phone company to provide information about the caller with proof of harassment or threat to life. They need this proof before releasing the information because they cannot release their registered users’ personal information.
You can also dial *57 on your mobile phone to prompt an instant trace of the phone number. Rather than call your mobile phone \company, you can request a trace from your network provider by simply dialing the code. This method is not new and is a service provided by every major network provider in the United States.
How to Block Unwanted Calls After Identifying an Unknown Caller
You can decide what to do with the number with sufficient information about the person calling you. If they are a spammer, scammer, or telemarketer, your best bet is to block them to keep them from calling again. How you block numbers on your phone will largely depend on the type of phone you’re using, among other things. However, below are general methods for blocking unwanted calls from strange numbers:
Contact List
You can block the number from your contact list if the number is saved on your smartphone. To do that, go to your phone’s contact list and select the contact you want to block. Go to the three-dotted menu button and select “block,” “add to blacklist,” or “add to block list,” depending on your phone type.
Call Log
If the phone number is not saved on your phone, which is highly likely, you can block them from your call log. To do that, open your phone app, and from the list of recent calls, choose the number you want to block. Long-press the phone number to reveal the menu; from there, select “block number,” and that’s it.
Phone Settings
This method is suitable whether you have the phone number saved on your phone or not. Simply open your phone’s Settings menu and go to “Call” or “Call settings,” depending on your phone type. You should see an option for blocking or rejection when opening the settings; it can be “block list,” “call rejection,” or “call blocking.” Select the option, create a new list, and add the number you want to restrict or block from calling you.
Network Provider
Your mobile phone company can also help block numbers from calling you, but you’ll need to pay a fee. The terms and conditions vary between service providers, so be sure to call your network provider. The best part about this is that the number will remain blocked even if you change your phone.
Third-Party Sites or Apps
After figuring out their identity, phone lookup tools allow you to block or report callers. It is highly unlikely, but if you cannot find any of these built-in blocking features on your phone, you can use the sites. Moreover, it is more time-saving and faster if you block them straight from the site. Once you’ve perused your search results and decided you don’t want to receive the person’s calls anymore, simply block them.
Conclusion
Everyone has experience with unwanted calls; it is a side effect of owning a phone. However, you don’t have to continue receiving them if you don’t want to. You can use any of the methods mentioned to find out who called you and block them if it’s what you want.