Devices to block landline robocalls

by Katie Ritchie

42 Attorneys General called on the Federal Communications Commission to stop illegal robocalls and spoofing. The AGs urged the FCC to adopt proposed rules specifically targeting calls to the US from overseas.

TheAGs report increases of nearly 50 percent of spoofed calls and financial loss associated with them in recent years. SC AG Alan Wilson said, “We all get these robocalls and spoofed calls….they’re incredibly frustrating for everyone… There’s little we can do at the state level to fight them because the calls usually come from other states or other countries, which is why we’re urging the FCC to take action.”

There are additional steps we can take as consumers to reduce the number of calls we get in the meantime. If you can’t block calls with your phone or phone provider, consider a call screening device. Search your favorite online retailer for “call screener” or “call blocker”. You’ll get dozens of results. Two I liked were the Sentry 3.1 Call Screener and NADAMOO Call Blocker.

The SENTRY lets you make a “whitelist” of numbers it will let automatically through so you’ll never miss an urgent call from family. It also gives callers the option to press “0” to ring through. That way if a family member gets a new phone or is calling from someone else’s phone in an emergency they’ll reach you.

The NADAMOO comes pre-loaded with 200 known scam callers and can store2000 blocked numbers. If a scammer gets through push the yellow button and they’re blocked. The downside is that, like a new puppy, you’ll have to train it. There are multiple ways to block numbers with this device. If you don’t want to answer the call you can block from the caller ID record.