Is it possible to have every possible phone number on your blocked caller list on your phone?

[matt819]

I receive maybe a half dozen calls a day from telemarketers of one sort or another. So far, there seems to be no limit on the number of blocked numbers you can put on an iphone. I'm beginning to think that at some point I will have every possible phone number on that blocked caller list. Talk about a never-ending battle, and one that I don't think we can win.

[Skittles]

1. can you get a different phone number?

[matt819]

2. Not realistic

"Everyone" has this number, and I believe the telemarketers are just autodialling numbers, so every number is bound to be called at some point.

[jberryhill]

3. There are apps for crowd-sourced "bad caller" data

http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/four-free-caller-identification-apps-that-will-annoy-your-telemarketers-android/

[matt819]

4. Thanks.

Only one of those is available for the iphone, and I'm downloading it now. Every little bit helps. Sure beats answering the phone with "What!" and finding there's a customer on the other end.

[jberryhill]

5. Oh, man

Yeah.

My assistant is a good screener of calls. There was one time where a prospective client, actually a lawyer that was looking for some specialized assistance, was being a bit on the coy side about why they were calling and my assistant went through her various questions designed to weed out spam calls before putting them through to me. The caller failed the test and I received a nasty email from them about my assistant, who has worked with me for 17 years through thick and thin, and how they decided to hire someone else instead.

I replied by telling them that I am so glad their call didn't get through to me, if that's the way they respond to a reasonable misunderstanding.

[csziggy]

6. I don't know about iPhones but I found a setting on my Android phone

And I don't even have to load another app! I add the spam number to my contacts list, then set it to automatically send it to voice mail. Since my voice mail is not and never will be set up, that means the phone doesn't ring and they get sent to a black hole.

I'm going to have to get something for my land line - the "Medicare Helpline" people with really thick Indian or Pakistani accents have been calling every day. The last two calls I yelled at them - when they complain about me yelling at them, I tell them if they don't want to be yelled at, don't call me.

If they catch me at the right time tomorrow I will apologize for my rude daughter and keep them on the line for as long as it is amusing to me, pretending to be a dotty old lady that can't understand their accents or what they are telling me and wandering off into random subjects like my seventeen cats, my dozens of house plants and all the lovely birds outside at my bird feeders.