Computer Related > Withheld/No number calls on landline Miscellaneous
Thread Author: Pat Replies: 24

 Withheld/No number calls on landline - Pat
I'm registered with TPS. I have a BT phone which allows me to block nuisance calls yet I'm plagued with calls where the number 'isn't available'

It's driving me mad at the moment. I had 6 yesterday and so far today I have had 7, some only 6 minutes apart.

I don't answer them and let them go to the answerphone but they don't leave a message at all.

I did answer just one last week and it was a from an energy company (No company name is given) telling me I didn't have to be on benefits to claim a new boiler.

They start just after 9am and go on until well after 10pm at night and as our alarm is always set for either 12.30am or 1am it's getting impossible to get any sleep in the evenings at all.

The number is my home number and my business number as well as being the PDF Charity contact number so I have to bear that in mind in any action I take to block them if indeed I can.

Ideas, please?

Pat
 Withheld/No number calls on landline - No FM2R
Can you forward all calls to a cell phone and install Truecaller on that cell phone?

That will stop known spam calls and all "number withheld" calls.
 Withheld/No number calls on landline - Bromptonaut
BT have a service called, I think, call guardian which requires callers to speak and identify themselves by name eg 'Simon from Citizens Advice'. It then presumably forwards the call to the recipient who hears the recorded name when they pick up and has option to accept/reject.

I think they also have free service that filters calls from known spammers and spoof numbers (I get them from what look like a London number but are actually a digit too long)

Barring all withheld numbers can mean missing stuff that matters. Some of our phones at work withhold because we need new inquiries to come through a 'gateway' number and not that of the last adviser they spoke to.
 Withheld/No number calls on landline - Pat
I have my phone/broadband account from PLusnet but have a BT phone so not sure if that would work Bromp, but that is exactly the problem I'm having with installing a call blocker or similar.

Plusnet do a system to block calls but you have to allow the numbers you want to get through so that's no good either.

Had 2 more since my first post about this.

Pat
 Withheld/No number calls on landline - Bromptonaut
>> I have my phone/broadband account from PLusnet but have a BT phone so not sure
>> if that would work Bromp, but that is exactly the problem I'm having with installing
>> a call blocker or similar.

I think services of the type you need will be at provider level (ie Plusnet) rather than your BT handset. Plusnet have call protect which seems to use a list of known spammers plus facility to block others.

www.plus.net/home-broadband/plusnet-call-protect/
 Withheld/No number calls on landline - Pat
Yes, I've looked at Call Protect from Plusnet and the problem is most of the Charity calls are withheld numbers from social/caseworkers etc.

I think Marks suggestion of diverting everything to my mobile looks favourite at the moment.

I leave that downstairs when we go to bed anyway, but the ringtone is AC/DC Highway to Hell:)

Pat


 Withheld/No number calls on landline - Pat
Just looked in the small print and all diverted calls are charged, even tough our mobiles are Plusnet too.

Pat
 Withheld/No number calls on landline - tyrednemotional
www.plus.net/home-broadband/plusnet-call-protect/

Most useful when the number isn't witheld, but you can choose to divert ALL witheld number calls to Junk Voicemail.

Free from Plusnet.

Edit:

crossed with Bromp.
Last edited by: tyrednemotional on Wed 26 Sep 18 at 16:36
 Withheld/No number calls on landline - Mapmaker
Turn the phone off when you go to bed?
 Withheld/No number calls on landline - Pat
I'll have a look at forwarding to a cell phone. I hadn't thought of that.

On 24 hour emergency call for the Charity so it can't be turned off....how I wish it could be at the moment.

Pat
 Withheld/No number calls on landline - Falkirk Bairn
I have Sky Shield activated - I have allowable numbers - anyone else the phone rings & I decide to take or dump the call. No extra, included in rental.

Works a treat - 11 months & only 1 scammer persevered.

It's a pain in the rear to start with -people have home numbers, work numbers, personal mobile, work mobile etc etc not to mentioned youngsters with their phones.

You can look on-line & see who call & blacklist someone - however scammers phone from spoof numbers often & keep changing.
 Withheld/No number calls on landline - Bromptonaut
>> I have Sky Shield activated - I have allowable numbers - anyone else the phone
>> rings & I decide to take or dump the call. No extra, included in rental.

I come across that one too, Sky's version of BT call guardian. From perspective of a person making a legitimate call on behalf of a professional organisation it works fine.
 Withheld/No number calls on landline - No FM2R
>>I'll have a look at forwarding to a cell phone. I hadn't thought of that.

An application such as Truecaller will do what you want. [There are others]

It is configurable and effective. Royal British Legion posters, adverts, social media pages and contact pages have my cell phone number.

it used to be deluged by spam calls but I need to receive calls from numbers I don't know, jut not withheld numbers or known spam organisations.

In the last year or so I have received no spam calls and have missed no call that I should have received. It requires no action from me, though if I ever do receive a Spam call it expects me to mark it as Spam so that it can be blocked for everybody else.

It does not upload or share my contacts.

 Withheld/No number calls on landline - CGNorwich
You really need a service provider who has an anonymous number blocking service. I don’t think Plus Net has such a service.

BT does. It cost £6.50 per month. The much maligned TalkTalk provides the service free of charge. Since I switched it on have been totally free of such calls. Still get a few nuisance call where number is not withheld but I just let them go to answerphone. They nearly always hang up and I block that number, again a free service with TalkTalk.
Last edited by: CGNorwich on Wed 26 Sep 18 at 17:18
 Withheld/No number calls on landline - Pat
It's impossible to block withheld or anonymous numbers though CG, and that's where all these are coming from.

To block them means you block Doctors/Business/ Charity calls which I need to be able to answer.

At the moment I'm relying on them leaving a message on the answerphone.

That's fine for the Doctors and the Charity but it certainly isn't the type of business service I like to offer.

Pat
 Withheld/No number calls on landline - CGNorwich
The TalkTalk system allows you to easily turn the anonymous number calling on and off temporarily. You could turn them off during the working day.
 Withheld/No number calls on landline - Ambo
I get a lot of these calls (in spite of TPS) but rarely answer the phone unless I am expecting a call, since I can rely on 90% of them being spam. I leave it to BT Answer to record messages and check for them once a day. Since my phone rings 11 times before that service cuts in, only determined callers get heard as spammers give up at about 5 rings.

If I do get caught out, I note that nearly all spam comes from two sources, an alleged BT and an alleged Microsoft, both with dire warnings of some kind. Quite often there is a giveaway background noise, clearly some chat room, before anyone speaks, a sign to ring off before listening further.

 Withheld/No number calls on landline - Duncan
I thought we had done this to death several? months ago.

On a typical day, I get one, sometimes two calls. Nowadays I normally simply hang up without speaking. Very occasionally I will engage them in conversation, such as:-
"Where are you?"
"No, I mean geographically - are you in the UK?"
"Oh - whereabouts?"
"Are you sure? What's the weather like there?"

But, as I say, I normally "JUST HANG UP". I am incredibly old and it really doesn't bother me.
 Withheld/No number calls on landline - Crankcase
My aged mother gets a lot of spammy calls. If she hears the phone at all, she generally says "it's one of THOSE calls" and doesn't answer it anyway. This means no family member now rings her, but as she can't hear or understand what you're talking about anyway, no bother. We only keep her phone because there's other tech in there now for various safety reasons.

Anyway, only yesterday I tried her built in BT call blocky thing. Dial 1572 from handset and it talks you through the various options and explains what happens if you turn on the features for withheld, international and blacklisted numbers, as well as a system for whitelisting your own. For her, I turned on pretty well everything that can block.

Don't know if it might offer something there, Pat, that you haven't already tried. Free, anyway.

 Withheld/No number calls on landline - Pat
I did look at that Crankcase but the problem is whitelisting unknown business and Charity calls I need to answer.

Thanks anyway!

Pat
 Withheld/No number calls on landline - Crankcase
Has to to be one of those truecall type things then. We put one in for my mother in law. The idea is of course that callers announce themselves before you answer, then it rings your phone and tells you jimmy is calling, and you can decide to answer or not.

Of course, the reality is that she answers everything anyway, in case someone might be cross with her and she doesn't want to inconvenince anyone in the smallest way. That's the way she lives her life, so I understand that. It means she still gets spam calls, and get distressed and tearful about them sometimes, but hey, we tried.
 Withheld/No number calls on landline - Bromptonaut
So as I understand it you need to be able to receive calls from (a) known family or business callers who's numbers display and (b) those withheld or anonymous numbers which are not spam - eg doctors, social services or other on PDA business.

The only option I've seen described that might work, apart from NoFM's suggestion of diverting to a mobile, is the Call Guardian type set up where your calls are screened before being offered.

What interests me is why you get so many spam calls over such a lengthy part of day. I get the odd one, but only a handful a week. Was at home all day on Tuesday and got one but answered and immediately hung up - spoof number with too many digits. Is reason fact that your number is out on net for PDA and perhaps professional use?
 Withheld/No number calls on landline - Pat
That's spot on Bromp and it may be that my number is out there but also, they only started after Talk Talk was hacked a few years ago when I was still with them so I think that has something to do with it.

I've had a bit of a breakthrough today.

I didn't realise that when I changed to Plusnet a few months ago I hadn't activated Caller Display on my account because I had always had it with Talk Talk and assumed it was a feature of the BT phone I use which allows me to block calls.

I've had one call since I activated it around 11am (3 already before that).

It displayed as an international number 0203 6895633 which is a spam number. I answered it and it was purporting to be from Talk Talk about my account ( which has been closed for a few months now.

I immediately blocked it and haven't had any since.

Just wish I'd realised that before.

Pat
 Withheld/No number calls on landline - Bromptonaut
>> I've had one call since I activated it around 11am (3 already before that).
>>
>> It displayed as an international number 0203 6895633 which is a spam number.

Those are the sort of numbers I often get. It comes from abroad but is spoofed to look like a London number 020 3689 5633. At one time the second field of London numbers always began with 7 or 8 reflecting 0171 or 0181. O20 3xxx xxxx is a recent addition, my last office number in London was in that sequence.

Got one on my mobile yesterday from a similar number in format 020 8xxx xxxx. Caller, female and sounding young, asked me about the recent accident which was not my fault......
 Withheld/No number calls on landline - neiltoo
I'm sure I read in the Telecomic this week, thatBT would have to block spoofed numbers from October 1st, on pain of fines of zillions, but I can't find it now.

8o(
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