Don’t let spammers and scammers make you dread answering the phone. Robert Irvine explains the most effective ways to detect and avoid nuisance calls and messages

Scam calls are a scourge of modern times. We’ve all experienced that heartsinking moment when we answer our phones to hear a detached voice claim we’re being fined by HMRC, have a virus on our PC or were recently involved in a car accident. UK residents reportedly receive an average of four nuisance calls a month, but in our experience it’s much higher. Gone are the days when you might get the occasional cold call from a local double-glazing firm or market-research company. Spam calls now come from all over the world from a motley variety of telemarketers, fraudsters and opportunists – both human and robotic.

Although caller ID makes it easier to see if it’s a friend, business or stranger phoning you, unless you wilfully ignore all numbers you don’t recognise – which can cause you to miss important calls – it’s very difficult to avoid nuisance callers. In this feature, we explain the best ways to deal with these pests, by identifying and blocking them without answering your phone, so you can focus on the calls you actually want to receive.

We reveal how to activate spam-call protection on your mobile and landline phones, recommend the best call-filtering apps and also explain how to stop spam text messages.

The spammers already have your number – now we’ve got theirs.

YOUR SPAM-CALL QUESTIONS ANSWERED

What defines a spam call?

The term ‘spam call’ refers to any unsolicited or unwanted call, typically targeting a large number of people. Also known as nuisance calls, they’re mainly used for marketing and fraudulent purposes.

Common examples include telemarketing calls, which aggressively try to sell you a product or service; robocalls, which play pre-recorded messages when you answer; and scam calls, which try to obtain your personal information, often by impersonating reputable organisations.

Others are merely annoying, such as silent or abandoned calls, which may occur when a spammer is testing your number, or when an auto-dialer has made more calls than there are agents available to handle them.

Can spam calls be dangerous?

Yes, very, especially the scam variety. Phishing calls pretend to be your bank, the police, a government department or a well-known company, and try to scare you into telling them personal information, such as your bank-account details, so they can steal your money and identity.

Tech-support scams claim your computer or phone has a virus and urge you to install remote-access software, which enables them to take over your device, infect it with malware and steal your data. And the last few years have seen a worrying rise in voice-cloning scams (www.snipca.com/54566),which use AI to impersonate people you know – including friends and family members – to con you into sending them money.

Particularly scary is that once you’ve fallen for a scam, your name and phone number may be added to a ‘mugs’ or ‘suckers’ list, so other scammers can target you with further scams.

How do spam callers get your number?

Your number may have been stolen in a data breach or hack, ‘scraped’ from a website or bought from a data broker along with thousands of other numbers. The auto diallers used by robocalls simply run through variations of millions of numbers, and mark those who answer as ‘active’.

Make sure you untick the box for marketing communications when you register with websites or enter competitions, to stop your number being passed to third-party companies and potential spammers. You can install a ‘burner’ app, such as Hushed (www.snipca.com/54565),to conceal your real mobile number from companies you call and text, but you’ll need to pay a monthly subscription.

Are spam calls illegal in the UK?

In the UK, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) handles “predatory, nuisance marketing calls” and advises registering your landline and mobile number with the Telephone Preference Service (TPS) at www.snipca.com/54560 (see screenshot below). This opts you out of unsolicited sales and marketing calls, and companies that contact you after you’ve registered (without your consent) are breaking the law.

Although it’s definitely worth registering with the TPS, scam calls are outside its remit because it only covers legitimate UK companies. For most spam calls, it’s as ineffective as the ‘do not track’ requests browsers make to websites.