Trace a Cell Number

How to Block Phone Calls

Learning to block incoming phone calls to your home phone or even cell phone can give you piece of mind when trying to avoid telemarketers, bill collectors, pranksters or even stalkers. There are several methods to block phone calls and some work better than others.

Blocking Landline Telephone Calls:

The first thing to do is utilize caller ID. For those who don’t know, caller ID is a device that either attaches to your phone or is integrated into your phone that identifies incoming phone calls. Your caller ID mechanism can alert you to the incoming phone number, the number and name of the caller and unfortunately sometimes no information at all. This will depend on the type of phone and amount of privacy the inbound caller is using.

The idea is to gather as much information about the caller and decide whether or not to pick up the phone. If you are able to use caller ID to determine you are receiving calls from telemarketers, it is a good idea to add you number to the National Do Not Call List.

There is only one National Do Not Call List and you are welcome to add your landline phone or cell phone to the data base. This is the single best way to rid yourself of telemarketers. You may visit The National Do Not Call List or call (888) 382-1222 and listen to the instructions. It is important to note that it takes 31 days after a number is added to the list before telemarketers must officially cease making calls.

Another method of blocking inbound calls is the use of an inbound call blocking device. These are screening tools that allow you to hand out codes to those you would like to be able to get through your blocking defenses and the callers simply dial in the code and the call is placed. These tools are readily available online but seem to be more trouble than they are worth because your contacts are likely to misplace or forget codes.

Local telephone companies all have some sort of pay service allowing customers to block certain incoming calls and they all come along with pros and cons. They do work but can turn out to be expensive and hard to manage for someone who is just trying avoid sales calls but may have use for incoming calls from unknown numbers. Most telemarketers who make their living by getting a target on the phone will have methods for bypassing caller ID and call blocking services. However, if you do answer a call from a telemarketer you can always ask them to remove your number from their list and they will probably not bother you again. It is usually other more malicious callers which end up becoming  the type of nuisance causing someone to really try and block a phone number.

Blocking Calls to a Cell Phone

With cell phones we have a trusty little call log that allows us to see the list of callers who call into our phones. However, most of the sales calls, pranksters, bill collectors and stalkers will call from unlisted numbers and their numbers will not appear to us so easily.

The first thing you need to do if you are getting harassed is save any voicemail or text message that may be sent. These can be used as evidence in a police report if you are indeed being criminally harassed.

Much like with a lindline call, if you do answer a cell call from a telemarketer, remind them they are calling a cell phone and they cannot do this without consent from you or an actual request from you to their company asking for a sales call. They should immediately remove your number.

Cell phones do happen to work differently from other phones and there are currently no good methods for actually blocking calls. The best thing you can do is run a reverse look up or a search by phone number to trace a call. Identifying the owner of a cell phone number and calling them directly or in some cases turning their identity over to the authorities is the best way to stop threatening phone calls.

But, free reverse look up services only yield basic information because cell phone directories do not exist and cell phone numbers are not published in the white pages. The information on cell phone owners is readily available but a small fee is required to access the databases containing that information.

If you are being harassed or threatened and cannot block a phone number because it is coming from a cell phone, a reverse look up is the best way to trace a cell number and rid yourself of that pesky caller.

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Caller ID Spoofing

Caller ID Spoofing has been around since the advent of Caller ID itself. In its simplest form Spoofing is the ability for a caller hide their identity by appearing to calling from a different or trusted number. One of the earliest uses of this tactic was for national sales teams to spoof using local numbers. Sales targets were more likely to answer a local call than a toll free number that appeared on their Caller ID.

Caller ID Spoofing has been used for fun little pranks to very malicious social engineering or pretexting calls and there are bills floating around to stop the practice. As with most technologies when scammers, fraudsters, stalkers, cheaters, and criminals begin to take advantage, efforts to curb its use take hold.

It doesn’t take a huge imagination to figure out what type of annoying little pranks can be performed with the ability to mask the number of an outgoing calls, but when spoofing into Law Enforcement Agencies, 911 Dispatches, and other public services things can get dangerous. There have been incidents of SWAT teams being sent to locations looking for armed intruders, false claims of hostage situations, and mass panic caused by the ability to conceal an identity.

Most of the trouble with Caller ID Spoofing comes when scammers feel protected enough to continually badger individuals, financial institutions, and credit card companies in an effort to gather information. The result is usually some form of fraud or identity theft.

Even with the possibility of legislation to seriously criminalize Caller ID Spoofing, protecting yourself using common sense is always the best defense against fraud. Currently, the Preventing Harassment Through Outbound Number Enforcement Act and the Truth in Caller ID Act are aimed at making it illegal to mask Caller ID numbers for intentionally defrauding or harassing others. However, these are not laws yet and prosecuting such acts will most likely prove difficult and costly for the average person.

The legislation itself is very limiting in the scope of what would or would not be considered illegal so not surprisingly even in the shadow of possible legislation more and more companies are advertising new and improved tools for Caller ID Spoofing. The names of the services might be ingeniously named but they are all based on the idea of masking identity to get a target on the phone.

So making sure you never give out any private information over the phone and keeping conversations with solicitors short and vague are great ways to avoid being lured into a scam. If you are interested in speaking with the caller who may be salesperson or a representative of a company you currently do business with, don’t be afraid to ask for their direct number and ring them back. If they are truly there to provide you with legitimate service they will have a way for you to call them.

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