You have the option to place anonymous calls. This makes it possible to reach out to strangers, friends, and family without them seeing your number. Preventing them from having your number or calling you back. Everyone has received those silly prank calls, and repetitious, annoying telemarketer calls. This raises the question, what are the options to stop the blocked, private, and no caller id calls from coming to your own phone?

What is a No Caller ID Call?

A direct call that no longer contains identifying information, such as, city, state, and phone number. This information is purposefully hidden from you. They are referred to as blocked, unknown. hidden, private, or no caller id phone calls.

What Makes the Call Unknown?

Many people choose to keep their phone numbers anonymous. This is incredibly convenient, unless, you are receiving the frequent, blocked calls from telemarketers, pranksters, scammers or spammers. The Federal Communications Committee, FCC, made it mandatory for service providers to allow consumers the use of this privacy feature that allows you to block your number.

Why Does the Feature Exist?

The Federal Communications Committee, or FCC, made it mandatory for providers to offer the feature because privacy is important. Not only is it important, but it’s your legal right! It may be frustrating, or annoying to watch people take advantage of the feature, but at least we are offered options. That makes us incredibly lucky.

Why would you want to Block your Number?

The main reason would be to prevent people from calling your number back after phoning them. Though the feature was probably meant to dismiss safety concerns, it has been somewhat corrupted. The feature now creates an issue for people to prank, scam, and harass others.

Sometimes the practice of hiding one’s phone number could be used to get by having their own number blocked. Someone you previously had blocked could be calling you from a hidden number.

Should you Answer?

It’s entirely up to you whether or not you answer. If you don’t answer they will leave a message, possibly containing call back information. If you do decide to answer be careful what you say. Never give out any personal information over the phone and don’t give them direct answers without being sure who you are speaking to.

Keep yourself updated on current scams that are currently being used. You can usually find them online and on occasion the news will release information on them.

How Did They Get Your Number?

Telemarketers are great at obtaining phone numbers. By understanding how they came across your number, you could minimize the amount of people finding it. Here are a few common ways you may be exposing your number, without realizing it, and some guidelines to prevent it.

Do You Overshare?

Every contest, form, or permission to contact slip is a chance for someone to obtain your number. Unfortunately, you more than likely gave the “Blocked” caller your number without thinking about it. Only give out your phone number when it is absolutely necessary.

Do You Read the Terms of Use?

“I have read and agreed to terms of agreement.” Does anyone actually do this every time? Probably not, but this could be how “Private” callers are getting your information. You have no idea what it said in the terms and conditions

Big Data

Unfortunately, there are websites that sell your information. Telemarketers and scammers purchase your phone number from a company that will leak them your information. Research a company’s policies to ensure they do not participate in this practice.

What is ANI?

ANI stands for Automatic Number Identification. If you call an 800,888, or 900 number this system catches your phone number. The system places your number in storage and then shares it with the markers related to you.

How Can you Block “No Caller ID’s?”

You have a few options. You can utilize your phones “Do Not Disturb” feature, block a contact, or block them directly through you provider. The final being the most reliable method. The first being, Do Not Disturb.” Below are a few ways to prevent the receival of “No Caller Id” phone calls. Test whether the trick worked, then move on to the next one.

Do Not Disturb

Find the option, “Do Not Disturb” in your settings, then select, “manual.” Turn on “Do Not Disturb” then “Allow Calls From. “Choose, “All Contacts.” This will allow your contacts to get through to you, but no one else.

Contacts

Choose the “Phone” application and open it. Touch “Contacts.” Select the option to add a contact. Enter a number consisting of ten zeroes (000-000-0000), then select done, scroll down until you find “Block this Caller.” Confirm that you would no longer like to receive any calls or messages from the listed contact, by selection, “Block This Caller” once more.

Have your Provider Block Them?

This is a sure-fire way to ensure that the contact no longer makes it through to your phone. A suggestion would be to visit the website of your service provider and read through their policies and practices regarding “No Caller Id” or “Blocked” numbers.

If you are experiencing a large amount of unknown calls from telemarketers and scammers, this may be your best option. Follow the guidelines to protect your phone number in the future.

Every major cell phone service provider offers a related service, though, some smaller providers do not. It is possible your provider may not be able to help you, but you can always block your own number. Every provider has this option, you will not even have to call to do it!

These steps will block all attempts to reach your phone by, “No Caller Id” numbers, so consider whether this is something you really want, it can be annoying to answer the phone and hear a telemarketer chatting away on the other end. Telephone scamming is an issue gaining increasing relevance in the news. It is usually performed through blocked calls. Use the tips in this article to protect your privacy.