It would be nice if we could block calls by using the star symbol and two digits. This would eliminate logging on to do it. Unblock calls the same way.
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I block all sales and spam calls via a Digital Receptionist (IVR). A real person must make a menu selection for our phones to ring. It also blocks sales people because they use robo-dialers to make the initial call and the sales person joins the call after the menu prompt. If our home phone rings, it’s a real person calling, not a spam or sales.
In addition, blocking a number usually does not work because sales and spam callers change their caller id often, maybe for for every call.
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…blocking a number usually does not work because sales and spam callers change their caller id often…
Yes, this practice has made per-number blocking devices a quaint anachronism.
For my elderly parents, I created a VOIP.MS IVR with a 3-digit touchtone challenge. The caller must know the 3-digit code in advance: the announcement doesn’t provide it. Anyone who doesn’t enter the code is shunted to voicemail. Then I used call filtering to exempt trusted callers (friends, family, doctors, banks). And we gave the three-digit code to the trusted callers, in case they call with an atypical caller ID and need to answer the challenge.
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I use an up-front IVR for my small business. Press this for information, press that to leave a message. None of the pathways default to voicemail. I used to waste a lot of time back in the VOIPO day playing whack-a-mole with number blocking. As noted by others, spoofing makes this pointless. The sad part is that the SIP header includes the non-spoofed number and our blocking tools don’t use it.
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