how can i block unknown callers

First, I have been a part of this 4 year old thread almost as long as you have, and have responded to others on multiple occasions. So I am hardly just "popping in a reply".

Second, I did mention I may be wrong, but to please post a link to where this is stated as illegal. The only issue I ever found was the FCC considers *Modifying* the callerID to something *different* and with a *malicious intent* as being illegal. I do understand what you are saying, but I have never heard that stripping caller id is illegal before, and have been unable to find any evidence besides your posts. Simply asking for a link.

Lastly, I get "Unknown" calls all the time. It's not hard to do, and I don't mean by using *67 as a prefix. Many PBX and VOiP systems do this. Half of the calls I get from my wife's government office show up as Unknown.

You may note I was not even replying to you.

FCC rules have required callerID strings in all calls since the 1990's. They were further amended in the "Truth in Called ID Act" of 2011. It is illegal, at least in the USA, to remove the caller ID string from an outgoing call. With international spamming and VOIP being so common, it still happens a lot. There are even internet advertised go-between VOIP services that openly advertise the "feature". It's also the reason why landlines started offering, at no fee, anonymous call rejection in the early 1990's. It was not to reject private or blocked calls, but only truly anonymous or unknown calls. Handsets that further added, on the device itself, the option of a blacklist based on callerID (exactly as iOS currently implements) then became very common as well (I tended to buy Motorola wireless home phones then, and they had blacklists, but the cost of memory meant they could only handle small lists - a few dozen numbers at most)

As to getting "unknown" from legitimate calls, I don't know what to respond to that. I don't get that on my handsets. My iPhone 7 (and previously 6, 5, 4, 3Gs and 3 - all with AT&T) all show either "blocked" or "private" for legitimate callers using call blocking. The only "unknown" calls I ever receive, for those when I've contact AT&T and the "do not call" support about them, I was told they are calls with stripped caller IDs, not blocked caller IDs. The do not call administration tells me they investigate such reported calls, but I actually doubt they do anything about it (and if it originated outside of the USA, the FTC couldn't do anything anyway, but AT&T sure could, by simply refusing to process such calls through their system to their customers, exactly as they do and have done with traditional landlines).

VOIP services like Ooma and Google voice also offer anonymous call rejection - which is one reason I use my GV number far more than my actual cell number.

Read this article : Block phone numbers and contacts or filter messages on your iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch - Apple Support

Either update to iOS 7 or contact your carrier and find out what options they offer.

Update your iPhone to the current iOS (iOS 7).

Then you can do Settings > Phone > Blocked and add the numbers.

I don't think the last responder read the question. When I go into "i" in iOS 7 for an Unknown caller, the usual options including "Block this Caller" are missing. Sounds like Apple didn't solve the biggest problem with blocking, namely telemarketers. Aside from being stalked by someone you know, the new blocking feature is worthless.

whirled peas wrote:

Aside from being stalked by someone you know, the new blocking feature is worthless.

True call blocking can't be done on a phone. Only a carrier can do it.

I have that same question. I meant too, "unknown CALLER", not unknown NUMBER.

When I got a call from someone who's not in my contacts, it shows the number. That can be blocked right away.

However, sometimes there's an "unknown" caller, without displaying any number. That call appears later in Recents, but the info button only shows "Unknown number", the date and hour, but nothing else.

Now THAT'S a caller I'd like to block, since many of those are telemarketing, stalkers, not to mention in Mexico we have other crime issues to be worried about.

Read Meg's response two posts above mine.

While I was using iOS 6, I tried creating a contact called "Unknown" and giving it a silent ringtone. It did not work. I still have the contact, but incoming calls from an unknown number would still ring through. Now with iOS 7, I can use the Phone App to try to block all incoming calls from that contact. If it does the trick, I won't really know, will i?

Well a Carrier can't really do it either, because telemarketers use a bank of numbers, I opt out of (or could call block) 2 google advertising numbers a day, they just call on another number.

We tested this on a known number, it doesn't show texts incoming but it shows them as sent. It will allow them to leave a voicemail, it will not ring or notify you that there is a voicemail or show up on your missed call list. However if you go to voicemail it will show up under blocked and you can choose to listen to it or delete it.

When the ios 7 first became available on the iPhone it did have that feature where you can block callers that called with no caller ID available... I had an ex that was constantly calling me and with the block this caller feature that apple provided on this update was amazing and the one thing I had been hoping apple would finally put as a feature for iPhone users... But when I updated to the ios 7.2 I believe that's what it's called I noticed just today I no longer have that feature available... And I went into my blocked list and not even in there does it show when I blocked no caller ID... It has all the other numbers I blocked... Apple knows what it's doing... And made that new update so it could disable this feature yet again... Way to go apple... If you have customers who are constantly complaining about this... Get to doing something and keeping us satisfied... We buy your products...

Thanks for sharing. The method I described weeks ago, works just fine. Use it and you won't need to waste any more time with pointless rants.

If your method worked so well I wouldn't have posted on here... So take your pointless so called solutions on how to fix this somewhere it might actually be the answer others are looking for :)

If you wish to allow calls only from your contacts, and exclude everyone else, you can set Do Not Disturb and keep it on permanently.

Here's more info:

http://support.apple.com/kb/HT5463