Spam mobile calls/phone ID

[aix123]

Hi,

I'm a relative newbie to Android.

The problem: I get two or three spam/nuisance calls per evening to my android mobile. I have Call Blocker, but it is still irritating to see the calls have come through.

I'm thinking of changing my main mobile number, to an old number which I've hung onto and which doesn't get any spam calls... I have it in a cheap handset which I check occasionally.

Is there anyway a spam caller can ring me without knowing my number, but knowing for example the phone handset identity? If so, it will be pointless me changing my number/SIM.

And on this point, I don't have many apps on the phone, but is it possible that a developer of an app can get my number via their app, or would it just give them the phone hardware ID?

Thanks.

 

[jj2me]

On the first point, my experience with a 10-year old cell phone number that I never give out except to friends/family, is zero spam calls, and maybe 1 spam text. I constantly wonder why. This is on Verizon for about the last 7 years.

 

[aix123]

I forgot to say, it's likely that my number has been sold on after a truck ran into me last year and I gave my number to the official road recovery team, and to the police. I had lawyers ringing me a number of times after the accident, despite already having a lawyer through my insurance policy. It's now been made illegal for the police in the UK to sell on numbers, but my accident happened before then. But I do also wonder if apps can harvest the number, so my current spam calls may not be the result of the police, lawyers, etc.

 

[Hadron]

If you've every filled your number into any form there's a chance that someone has sold it on, and then that person has sold it to someone else, etc. Getting calls from lawyers shortly after an accident is suspicious indeed (police, your insurer, their insurer if they get that information?). But the bulk of ongoing calls now, who knows? Could be reselling from that event, but could also be any other company who've ever had your number. It would be technically possible for an app to harvest numbers for this purpose, no idea whether anyone actually does that.

If your current number is on some lists then yeah, changing it will cut the calls down. TPS registering it does help - all of my personal numbers are ex-directory (and always have been) and TPS registered, and the only junk calls I get are from overseas call-centres or robots. That's a trick they use to avoid the legislation - presumably because it's cheaper than having to vet the numbers they call, because it's obviously a waste of everyone's time to call someone who's registered on a do-not-call list? Even those I don't get many of at the moment.

Or of course, there's always the approach this guy took

 

[aix123]

Thanks for that, Hadron.
I'm always amazes when I ring BT on behalf of my elderly parents who receive four or five spam calls on their landline per day, that BT say they can't do a thing. Surely they could simply block any unidentified number calling if the customer requested (and paid) for it.

 

[gtbarry]

Here in the USA...Back in high school, I did some phone spamming/sales/cold calling for a financial company. We were given call sheets of entire streets. Each address on that street had the household member's names, ages and contact numbers. No clue where the sheets came from, but starting then - I knew there was no place to hide a phone number.

Also, I use this app. Any call coming to my mobile that is not in my contacts is sent to voicemail without me ever knowing about it. The app can also block texts. It has a log, so I can check it every week or so in case a friend accidentally had a number blocked. Free in the Play Store:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.baole.app.blacklist

 

[Hadron]

Thanks for that, Hadron.
I'm always amazes when I ring BT on behalf of my elderly parents who receive four or five spam calls on their landline per day, that BT say they can't do a thing. Surely they could simply block any unidentified number calling if the customer requested (and paid) for it.

There is such a feature, though relatively pricey. And it blocks withheld rather than unavailable calls, so overseas-based spammers may still get past it.

Anonymous Call Rejection | Help | BT.com Help

 

[Hadron]

Here in the USA...Back in high school, I did some phone spamming/sales/cold calling for a financial company. We were given call sheets of entire streets. Each address on that street had the household member's names, ages and contact numbers.t

I've never had a junk caller who could tell me my name - it's one of the tests I use, especially if they claim to know something about me, such as my having been in an accident or being due a phone upgrade.

Back in the early 90s I had a home phone which had a "music on hold" function - an eternal loop of badly-synthesised "Greensleeves". I did once or twice say "Actually, that sounds really interesting. Can you just hold a minute while I get my wife, as she'll want to hear this?". Cruel, I know....