Phone Spam Filtering Tools - The Australian Government to Require SMS/MMS Sender ID Registraion

Consumer strategies including Do Not Call registers, Android spam filters, iOS 'Ask Reason for Calling' feature, and setting phones to only ring for known contacts.

The overwhelming volume of phone spam has pushed many users to their breaking point, with some reporting hundreds of monthly calls that disrupt their work and personal lives. To regain control, consumers are adopting aggressive strategies such as silencing all unknown callers or utilizing iOS’s "Ask Reason for Calling" feature to vet potential scammers in real-time. While national "Do Not Call" registers and built-in Android filters provide some relief, many find that the most effective defense is a strict policy of ignoring unrecognized numbers and relying on voicemail for legitimate communication. Despite the frustration, some argue that the freedom of unregistered telecommunications remains important, provided that users continue to leverage evolving operating system features to manage the noise.

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Just looking at my incoming call list on my phone for yesterday: "Suspected Spam", "Suspected Spam", "Suspected Spam", "Potential Fraud", "Suspected Spam", "Suspected Spam", a real call, "Suspected Spam", "Suspected Spam"...

Phone is set to only notify me for numbers for known contacts - does mean that I occasionally miss calls from other people, but I can live with that.

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Yes, was just relating my experience - it's just go the the point where I personally opt to play safe. Like everyone I do get calls from people who aren't in my contact list but it was getting silly so I've defaulted to ignoring them and it works for me. Anyone serious is going to be happy leaving a message - which suits me anyway as I spend a large part of my work day in Teams calls.

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I guess the signal-to-noise ratio matters.

In the last 3 months I received 700 spam/scam calls to my phone, my wife received about 400. We can't turn off ringing for unknown callers and we're getting mad. A few days ago I vented to one of those call-center people trying to sell me a cheaper power utility for the Nth time, and told her to find another job or something like that; she actually called me back yelling at me that "any job is worth", and yelled at her that I cannot fucking receive sometimes up to 20 calls in a day, sometimes at quite annoying times of the day! It's getting ridiculous.

EDIT: I know not everybody is having the same experience in my country. Some people are only getting a few calls per week; I registered our phones in https://registrodelleopposizioni.it/ and also I'm using android's spam filter which filters out additional hundreds of calls automatically.

EDIT 2: I sometimes wonder if we're being harassed by somebody ; I cannot tell. The voices are often quite similar, but it might be the albanian accent that makes them sound similar.

EDIT 3: caller id numbers are always different

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I too, but I never take them before I've looked up the number. If it's important they'll take my call or call back.

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There are good reasons to allow unregistered telecommunications. If you don't like it, you can always block it your end; given that we can all expect many other people to do the same (and it'll likely be a feature built into many phone operating systems), the social pressure you're after still exists.

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The 'Ask Reason for Calling' iPhone feature has completely eliminated scam calls for me. Real callers not in contacts leave a short message and I pick it up. Best iOS feature from the last few years IMO.

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Have you added yourself to the Do Not Call register?

https://www.donotcall.gov.au