How to act if a suspicious number calls your mobile

Surely more than once you've come across unknown numbers on your phone that don't even answer when you pick up, or if they do they want to sell you something. It is a very frequent and annoying situation that all of us who have a cell phone have gone through. The so-called spam calls make us lose time and patience. On many occasions when I pick up the phone it seems that there is no one on the other end of the line, but just after a while or days we begin to receive calls from pollsters, vendors, banks… The big question is what exactly are these spam calls? What do they achieve and intend to harass us in this way? The answer is very easy: earn money and new customers.

The big problem that we face is whether or not to take the mobile phone, since most of the time it is about landlines that could be important calls and not spam. On the Internet there are tools and applications that allow us to identify these numbers and, if things get ugly, block them.

Search the phone on the Internet

One of the ways to know if the phone that called you is spam or not, in order to return the call or not, is to consult it on a website enabled for it. One of them is Tellows. Basically you just have to enter the number in question in the search engine section to find out if it is a suspicious number. Tellows will give you information about the name of the company behind it (if it is one), giving you a scale from 1 (very reliable) to 9 (not reliable). In addition, it also includes a map with the location of the interlocutor.

Of course, Tellows provides this data if the phone is registered in its database. You already know that if it is not and you finally verify that it is spam, you can register it yourself so that other users are on notice. The website is consulted daily by more than 200,000 people from 47 countries.

Another of these websites is ListaSpam. As they themselves claim, they are the largest telephone directory of companies in the entire network, with more than 50,000 registered telephone spam numbers. Like the previous one, it also has a search engine for you to enter the telephone number to consult. It is recommended to search the system before answering any calls to any unknown or suspicious number. This way, you really know who is calling and what their intentions are. If you prefer, instead of entering the web you can install its application available for iOS or Android.

Block the number

Once you verify that the calls you are receiving are from spam numbers, it is best to automatically block them. You can do it with apps or by making a series of adjustments on Android or iOS, depending on the platform you use.

Truecaller

One of the best known apps to block numbers is Truecaller (available for Android or iOS). This tool has built its directory on three different pillars: allying itself with different telephone directories, thanks to social networks and the Truecaller user community itself. And is that when a certain group of people in the app mark a number as spam, the notice will jump to all those who have it installed to alert them that it is a suspicious call.

Truecaller's interface is very intuitive and easy to use. Once you have configured it by following the steps indicated, the protection will be activated against future spam calls. In the event that you receive one, TrueCaller will jump to alert you.

Activate the spam filter on Android

If you can update to version 22 of the Google Phone application, you can start blocking all those spam calls you receive on Android. To use this option, you just have to enter the Settings section , in Caller ID and spam to then activate Filter suspicious spam calls. Until now, only the Caller ID and spam option could be used to find out if the call was suspected of spam. With the new function of filtering calls, they will no longer ring directly, they will be blocked automatically.

Activate the spam filter on iOS

If you have an iPhone we recommend that you go into Settings, Phone, Block and Caller ID to block calls from all those suspicious numbers that you see on the screen. Also, you will not receive messages or calls through FaceTime from these numbers. Of course, you will have to enter them manually, so you will have no choice but to check them beforehand on the web or install an application like TrueCaller separately.

Use the Robinson List

Another method to avoid spam calls on your mobile is to use the Robinson List. You can register in it to not receive advertising by any of the possible direct channels: telephone (landline and mobile), email, text messages (SMS), fax or postal mail. In theory, all companies are obliged to respect this list, so if you sign up, the problem of telephone spam and other annoying communications would have to end. To register you just have to add a series of personal data, such as email, ID and name. Once you do, you will come to a menu with different options. Choose the one that suits you depending on whether you want to include a phone number, email, SMS or postal mail.