We need apple to update the latest O/S

iPhonejeff wrote:

We need the ability to block any call that does not have caller id information. All the techniques for using contacts, do not disturb, etc are useless if the phone cannot identify (based on data you have in your contact list) the call. The dependency is based on the phone number calling you and not based on the contact information. For example, if you receive an UNKOWN, you can create a contact for UNKOWN and set the phone to ignore, however, the phone has no way of blocking a truly UNKOWN call. Please fix. I've been keeping a log of this and many of us are getting two and three calls a day from "UNKOWN".

Submit your feedback to Apple here:

http://www.apple.com/feedback

Meanwhile, consult with your carrier to see if they have any options for you.

This is a user to user technical support forum, but you can share your thoughts with Apple here: Apple - Feedback

Cheers,

GB

There's a misconception that calls from Unknown are in some way nefarious. Telephone spammers, robocallers, phishers and lowlifes in general never hide their caller ID. Instead they forge a false caller ID. Calls from Unknown are usually legitimate calls from people who have a valid reason to not show their caller ID. For example, your doctor returning your call from her cell phone, or the private contractors or volunteers working for an organization you belong to or support who are calling you using their personal phone. If you block Unknown calls indiscriminately you will miss these calls.

(sorry Meg, I meant to hit reply on iPhonejeff's original post)

I believe what you wish is to block calls with no callerID information? That is, ones where the caller has (illegally) stripped the callerID string from the transmission.

If that is what you want, then call you carrier and tell them you wish to have anonymous call blocking on your cell line. Most companies already do this as a standard feature on landlines, but cell companies have stubbornly refused to implement it on cellular service.

Michael Black wrote:

(sorry Meg, I meant to hit reply on iPhonejeff's original post)

😎

Michael Black wrote:

I believe what you wish is to block calls with no callerID information? That is, ones where the caller has (illegally) stripped the callerID string from the transmission.

It's not illegal to block your caller ID. It's a feature of the switched telephone network, and you can even block your number from your phone when you make a call. Go to Settings/Phone and scroll down to Show My Caller ID, and you can turn it on or off for all calls. From any phone you can block your Caller ID for a single instance by entering *67 before making a call.

In most cases blocked caller IDs are for valid reasons, such as your doctor returning your call from a personal phone if she wants to protect her privacy. Or volunteers for an organization you belong to calling you to update you on organization activities from their personal phones.

Scammers, robocallers, phishing callers and other lowlifes almost never block their caller ID. Instead they use a bogus caller ID so the call looks legitimate.

Thus, it's generally a bad idea to block unknown callers.

I never mentioned blocking your callerID, I specifically mentioned stripping it. As in truly anonymous calls that people sometimes get where their simply is nothing in the callerID field at all. Removing the callerID string is technically illegal, but actually easily done. On landlines, most service providers simply put in place rules to not allow any such calls to propagate through the switch.

For reasons that have never been rational to my mind, most cellular carriers have refused to implement anonymous call blocking on cellular services. You can contact your carrier and report such calls, and they have to forward the complaint to the FCC, but it does nothing to stop them it seems.

When someone legitimately blocks their callerID, the callerID string is still included in the transmission, and the receiving handset, by law, simply accommodates the block request code and displays UNKNOWN instead. But the callerID is actually still there, and is certainly known to the service provider's equipment.

CallerID blocking and callerID stripping are two different things. The Truth in Caller ID Act allows for call blocking by senders. It does not allow for stripping or spoofing of callerID. But I and many other people have occasionally had calls where the callerID is blank, and it would be nice if the service providers would just block those from ever connecting to anything.

Of course any service provider can block a call with no CallerID string in it. It's trivially simple for their switches to recognize that the CallerID string is missing and simply block that call right there at the switch. They've been doing this as standard practice for landlines for decades. They just don't want to implement the same system on cellular service, or at least refuse to do so.

Anonymous call blocking is just that - any truly anonymous call, with no CallerID string at all, is blocked at the service providers call switching equipment. When I had service with AT&T as far back as the 1990's, anonymous call blocking was a default standard feature of service. It's pretty simple to recognize the absence of part of a signal in a standardized signal format.

Again, by law in the USA, a service provider itself cannot refuse to connect a call with a blocked callerID as every caller has the right to legitimately simply hide or block their callerID information. But they have the legal authority to refuse to connect calls with missing or corrupted CallerID strings, and could easily do so if they wished to or were willing to.

iPhonejeff wrote:

Thank you for the response. This is why Apple should make it an option. The people like doctors, private contractors, etc., are purposely put into the contact list so I know who it is.

But if they block their caller ID from their cell phone they won't be displayed; instead they would be blocked. And if they are blocked how will you get their voicemail?