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Dealing with malicious and nuisance calls
Dealing with malicious and nuisance calls

Learn how to handle upsetting and annoying calls.

Poppy avatar
Written by Poppy
Updated over a week ago

If you’re worried about receiving malicious or nuisance calls, there are a few precautions you can take:

  • Don’t reply to texts from numbers that you don’t recognise.

  • Don’t answer calls from withheld numbers or numbers that you don’t recognise.

  • If you get a call with an automated message, never make any number selections.

If you’re already receiving malicious and nuisance calls keep calm, don’t talk to the caller and never share any personal information. Hang up as soon as you can.

If you receive a direct threat, then call 999. Otherwise call 101 to report it.

How to stop nuisance calls

Report calls

Please report any unwanted calls to 7726 for free. You’ll then get a message to say we’ve received it. Reporting allows us and other mobile networks to block numbers which are causing distress.

Register for the Telephone Preference Service (TPS)

Anyone can do this for both landline or mobile and it is free. You can register through their website. It does take 28 days, but after then companies are only allowed to contact you if you’ve already given them permission.

Apps

TrueCaller

This pulls info from 200 million active users to show you who is calling, even if they're not in your contact list. You will be alerted if there is a dodgy call coming through. When you register, it will ask for your permission to access your personal data including your phonebook, VoIP and messaging services. They do this for all users, and it’s called crowdsourcing.

Whoscall

This is another free alternative very similar to TrueCaller. The app lets you block numbers by keyword as well as by prefix or international codes. The data is community generated, however there is less being pulled from your phone.

Hiya

You'll get caller ID alerts to nuisance calls and automatic fraud and spam blocking rather than just detecting. Like TrueCaller, your calls are also analysed when you register, but the company says they don’t use any personally identifiable information.

RoboKiller

This app can block spam calls with prerecorded Answer Bots. Mark your own contacts as safe and let the app do the rest. There’s a free 7-day trial, but it is a paid for service.

Mobile phones with fraud detection features

Samsung Smart Call

For Samsung Galaxy phones, turn this on through ‘Settings’ and then ‘Caller ID and spam protection’. When you start to get warnings about suspected spam or scam calls, you can choose to block or report the number.

Block numbers on Android phones

Open your phone app

Hit the 3 dot icon on the top right

Choose ‘Call Settings’ and then ‘Blocked Numbers’

Click the ‘+’ button and type in the numbers you want to add

Block numbers on iPhone

Go to your recent callers – open the phone app then tap on ‘Recents

The ‘I’ symbol – next to the unwanted number – will show a list of options

Choose ‘Block this Caller’ and confirm your decision. The number won’t be able to call you again.

If there is anything you're concerned about, contact our customer support team for help.

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