how can i block unknown callers

I agreed with most of your previous posts besides the legality of initiating a call without a caller ID. An Unknown call is from a phone that does not show a CallerID, but is hardly illegal. I have that option on my phone, to block my callerID. It registers a "Unknown Caller". It happens often, especially with older PBX systems. What is illegal is to change the displayed caller id to something else with malicious intent. Simply blocking your caller id is not illegal in the US. I have been wrong before, so if I am, please post where it states it is illegal.

As to the issue at hand, Again, if it could be done by the phone manufacturer, it probably would have been done already at some point in the past 20 - 25 or so years. I'm not sure why this topic keeps reopening, years later. Multiple solutions have been given. Read the thread. Yes, all 14 pages. If you still have questions, start a new one, with more relevant information. If you still want to complain about a nonexistent feature please contact Apple directly at http://www.apple.com/feedback.

Hi, I tried the advice you gave. I got the copy end of it to work. But when I go to contacts, instead of paste it gives me a magnifying glass. I have a feeling this can work, can you help me figure out what I'm doing wrong? Thank you.

Oh, you're correct about that being a rant, and quite nasty in the wording. I'm amazed how people will "talk" to others they don't even know in such insulting, and more, ways.

Please let me know if you can figure out what I'm doing wrong? Thank you. Linda

On Android you don't need to download any applications to block an unknown number. It comes up with an option to block unknown incoming calls. Whereas with an iPhone you don't get that option which is pathetic because Apple strive to be better than every other phone company, but yet they can't even add a simple feature to block unwanted callers.

How to Block Unknown Caller and No Caller ID Calls and callers not in your contacts

We already know how we can manually block a phone number individually. This method is a bit more sophisticated. It’s a clever workaround using the underrated Do Not Disturb feature. Once we enable this feature, your iPhone will not ring or vibrate when anyone that’s no in your contact book calls you.

Step 1: Open the “Settings” app on your iPhone and select “Do Not Disturb“.

Step 2: Toggle the “Manual” option. This will turn on Do Not Disturb. You’ll see the half moon icon in the status bar.

Step 3: Tap on “Allow Calls From“. Now you have two options. If you tap on “Favorites“, all the contacts in your favorites list will be allowed (like your family and friends). If you choose “All Contacts“, anyone in your contact list will be able to call you. This is the better option as you won’t miss a call from people actually in your contact book. And that’s it. Enjoy your peace of mind.

Unwanted Callers and Unknown callers are two completely different things. If I blocked UnKNOWN callers I would never get my calls from work, or even from my wife's office, due to how their phone systems are set up. If you do not want to get calls from a number, just block them by going to your recent call list, tap the i and add to blocked callers. Apple has no way of knowing what unknown callers are valid. Pathetic is over generalizing and believing your opinion of how something should work is the right way for everyone.

And a blocked caller ID is also different from a truly absent, or no caller ID. Blocking your caller ID is perfectly legal, using *67 or the setting on your iPhone (if supported - AT&T has that setting, to permanently block the caller ID).

A blocked caller ID, btw, does reach your handset. But, at the carrier's switches, an addition is made to the caller ID string that hides it from the recipient of the call in order to honor the caller's legal right to not display their caller ID. The carrier can still see and retreive the caller ID of a legally blocked caller ID.

A call with no caller ID, where the caller ID was stripped out at the source, is illegal just about everywhere. Carriers can stop those using their own switches and blocking all calls without any caller ID string. They do this routinely and for free with landlines as "anonymous call blocking" but stubbornly refuse to implement it for cellular service subscribers. Although some are now offering it, for free, with business cellular service accounts, so their refusal to implement it universally with cellular service is just them being giant P.I.T.A's.

thestrawbarigurl wrote:

There is no number to block with Unknown Caller.

This thread started 3½ years ago. There is a lot of material here.

If the caller is unknown to you, but you do see a telephone number, you may block it. If the caller is unknown and you do not see a telephone number, you may not block it.

I have all our phones registered for years but robocalls and other spam calls occur frequently.

Is there an app to block our phones from these scammers who use other people's phones to make these scam calls.

They may start with the numbers listed in the do not call list.

The post you replied to is from 2014, 3 1/2 years ago. There was a new story on the US networks today that despite being on the Do Not Call list, there have been an uptick in robocalls lately. Many of the scammers are beginning to spoof valid phone numbers, which is causing a number of issues with DNC list. The FCC is supposed to be investigating, but I doubt it will change things in the near term.

I have been dealing with this for years.
While land lines can block Unknown Callers with their ID's blocked, cell phone carriers are not able to do this.
Registering your phone on the government's "Do Not Call List" doesn't stop telemarketers or anyone else from calling you.
Anyone thinking or telling you that is mislead.
What registering your phone can do, is entitle you to $500.00 per call from the offender.. As if you're going to find them in whatever state they're in and serve them a subpoena, get them in court and collect... and all of that only after you've informed them not to call back or picked the opt out option key on your phone....
And according to the FCC, usually if you choose the opt out key, that indicates to the caller that the # is good and that gets put on a list of numbers and sold to other robo callers.

While it used to work in the past, reporting these calls to the FCC no longer does anything other than inform the FCC of a specific ph# that has a large number of reports against it (their definition of "large" or "numerous" is not defined.) or as to whether there is a pattern of these calls that can be identified.
I was hoping that there was an app, which is why I came to this forum.. but as I read through this one reply reminded me/us that devs need access to the right set of SDK's and Apple won't ever do that.

velocitymj wrote:

While land lines can block Unknown Callers with their ID's blocked, cell phone carriers are not able to do this.

Actually carriers can indeed do this in cellular accounts as well as land lines. The technology is most certainly within their capabilities. Cell carriers have steadfastly refused to do so, for reasons that defy logic to my mind.

Even when you block your number, the carrier knows it - there is just a prefix to the callerid that makes the receiving handset not show it to honor the legitimate block. An "unknown" is a call where the callerid has been illegally stripped. With land lines, all the service providers do is refuse to propagate calls without a callerid. They can do exactly the same on cell calls as well. With land lines, they've offered "anonymous" call blocking for decades. For cell phones they simply refuse to implement it and give a list of ridiculous excuses why they don't.

When I spoke to my carrier T-Mobile and their tech department, they must have been misinformed, because they told me that they can't block any phone numbers.
That was three days ago.
They also stated that I can't refuse a call unless they unblock their phone number (I'm sure that many people remember calling someone's land line and getting a recording telling them that the have to unblock their phone number and call back).

Yes, your T-mobile tech was either misinformed, misspoke or lied. Any cell carrier could block truly "unknown" calls, but they do not do so (which is a big difference from "cannot").

In the USA, it is illegal to initiate a call without a caller ID string. When you or anyone blocks their number (with *67 prefix for example), all that does is add a prefix to the caller ID string. Again, by law, the final call rceiver then is blocked from showing the caller ID string. But there is a callerID and the carrier's can see it on their switches and network.

"Unknown" calls are anonymous in that the caller has, illegally, stripped the caller ID string. It's simple enough for any telephone switch equipment operator, landline or cellular, to program the switch to simple stop such calls from propogating through the call network. That's all landline "anonymous call rejection" free services have done for decades. There is no technological reason why it cannot be done for cell calls. Cell carriers do not do it, but they all certainly could.

And the cynic in us all knows exactly why they refuse to do it - it would cut into their profits, at least a bit, and at least initially, as they reprogrammed their systems to do it. Instead, some carriers now offer it as a "for fee" extra service on your account - imagine that 😮

As stated by MLadd, if it was illegal in the U.S. to block your phone number, we wouldn't have that option available to us on our own phones.
When you file a complaint with the FCC about a telemarketer or robo caller, there are several questions on the complaint form asking whether the caller had an ID, what the ID said and what the phone number was.
All of that indicates that it is not illegal to have a blocked ID.
As far as making money, I can't see how, since telemarketers and robo calls (and I would guess, dead air calls too) all originate from land lines.
I seem to remember that if you don't have an unlimited calling plan usually the phone companies will delete the charges from any telemarketing calls from the phone bill if you call them and provide them with the phone#s, date and time of call.
My landlines used to be with AT&T and they had call rejection for blocked numbers.
I haven't called them yet to see if they have call rejection for their mobile network.
But I'm averaging 3-4 blocked calls out of as many as 12 telemarketing calls a day and it would be worth the extra cost to switch back to AT&T if they had call rejection.

Please actually read what I wrote and the rest of the thread before popping in a reply. I never once said it is illegal for anyone to block their callerid. I said it is illegal to initiate a call without a callerid string. Call blocking (e.g. by *67 before dialing) has always been fine - it does NOT remove the caller ID string in the call though. It merely flags it to not be displayed on the receiving handset.

Calls with simply "unknown" shown do not have a caller ID, at all. The caller or robocaller has illegally removed the caller ID string to avoid tracing. Truly "unknown" callers, are illegal - the hardware and software used to strip outgoing call callerid strings is illegal, although commonly used for scam calls and such.

On landlines, anonymous call rejection by the service provider stops calls without a callerid from coming through to your phone. Anonymous call rejection DOES NOT interfere with a call with a legally blocked callerID.

On on my phone with normal blocked caller IDs, I see "private" or "blocked". When I see "unknown" I know it is a scam or spam call, with no callerid, and I wish AT&T would simply stop those at their switches, as they did for years and years when I had a landline with them.