I don’t have that level of protection turned on and I get very few calls. Both my work and personal numbers are on GV so if somehow either of my direct lines start getting spam bombed I can burn them and get new ones. Thinking about it, I should maybe be prepared and grab one to park as I’ve advised so I have a fresh and clean one ready to go.

If you are still getting that many and sometimes more, I would suggest exactly what I did to OP in another comment. Get a new number. Grab one from GV, number barn, etc that hasn’t been used in awhile. Alternatively move your current number (if you want to keep it long term) and get a new direct number.

I have my main number on GV, I’ve had it for over a decade. I ported it to GV from tmo about that long ago. I grew up in Florida so just because I got a 727 area code for my personal direct line, I moved that sim to my work phone when I moves to having 2 phones. That number gets like 5 calls a week if that and they are mostly from house flippers trying to lowball me on a property I don’t own nor have ever seen. The other ones are political bs. My current personal direct line is a local number and that one gets literally zero spam calls, a few texts but nowhere near the insanity that some people deal with. I have no idea how many calls or texts are being blocked by tmo now.

I’ll repeat. If you are getting a shit storm of spam and turning on the carrier level protection doesn’t help, it’s time for a new number. I responded up top level because OP was being obstinate and saying that a new number was pointless because it had been used by deadbeats (paraphrasing here) without seeing the irony in that statement.

This was the first result when I googled it.

Have you turned on spam protection from your carrier? And as I said in another comment, if you port the number to GV or the like and let it sit, it will eventually stop getting calls. It also depends on what you mean by extended periods of time and if you then start answering the calls even when you aren’t expecting a call or don’t recognize the number.

Nope. What they said is accurate. Some of them are bots calling and then flagging that as a good number when a person answers.

That’s not how that works. Maybe you don’t understand how these call centers work. These days it’s usually a bot dialing a list of numbers and flagging any with a person answering as one for a real person to call to sell/scam/whatever.

I’m hoping for your sake that you are just being pedantic and hyperfocusing on my verbiage instead of the overall message.

At the time of that comment I and all of the other legit advice was getting shit in and downvoted by OP and others.

It’s bad advice. Just stop answering the ones you don’t recognize. If you have android, Googles phone app is pretty good at giving you the name of the company that is calling you (assuming it’s not spoofed). It’s also pretty good at flagging calls and texts that might be spam. If you are waiting for a call from your mechanic for example, it will usually show you that its Firestone or NTB or whatever calling.

Stop answering spam calls and they will eventually go away. If they don’t go away or seem like they are waning, you might have someone fucking with you and it’s time for a new number that you don’t give out to anyone. I do the same with email. I have ProtonMail and I have a few aliases that I use for specific purposes, if/when one them is leaked/sold/traded/whatever, I will temporarily pause that address and eventually it will get flagged as a bad one and they will stop coming.

Nice to see the reddit attitude making it’s way here. OP is downvoting all of the correct answers and the bad advice is getting upvoted.

To everyone reading this. If you don’t want spam calls stop answering numbers you don’t recognize. You should also go to your carrier and opt in to whatever spam blocking service they offer (should be free).

I would also advise as I did in another comment to keep your real number on GV or similar with decent spam protection/blocking and use a direct number you can burn if needed.

This is the answer. The big 3 have spam protection that you can opt in to.

Ever hear about a system in place to certify the number is actually coming from the correct party? Not all carriers have signed on but as the top comment here said, it’s their responsibility and tmo at the least has some pretty decent spam protection/blocking in place, they also have a number you can forward texts to and they will analyze them and use them to improve their spam filters.

Try being witty elsewhere, here you just look like a fool.

This is bad advice. All this does is is flag the number as in service and it will get even more calls.

Aside from the advice I gave in another set of comments, you could and should check with your cell provider and turn on spam blocking if they offer it.

I have a total of 5 numbers across 2 phones, 2 at GV and 1 at textnow. I get very very few spam calls and texts. I very rarely answer the phone for a number I don’t recognize, I let it go to vm and then if it’s legit and important I’ll consider calling them back. I keep my phone on silent and all calls and notifications go through my watch so I am not listening to the phone ring especially when I am working.

It actually will stop it eventually. I have a work number on GV as well and it receives zero non work calls. Similar with the direct number on both work and personal phone. Work phone gets calls every so often about real-estate I definitely don’t have anything to do with and my personal line gets zero spam.

Yes, porting a number into GV and letting it sit along with leaving it on don’t ring at all anywhere will eventually clear that number up. It may never be zero calls but if you keep answering it the calls will keep coming.

If you want a better chance of a clean number, look for area codes that are more recently allocated, this will make it more likely that others haven’t used it before you. You’ll probably have a decent chance by grabbing a number from GV directly or through number barn or the like. Find a number that has been sitting around for awhile and you’ll probably be fine.

Maybe it’s time to change your number. If you want to keep your current one maybe port it into something like google voice where it can sit and eventually the spam will stop.

I have my main number that I’ve had for over a decade on GV and then I have my direct number that I give out sparingly, mechanics, plumbers, etc that need to contact me and I need to receive the call, my GV number is set to not ring at all aside from messagea.

Your working with magnets and assuming you have android auto and/or carplay, think outside of the box. I put a magsafe charger under my dashboard near the usb and DC plugs. I also have a vent mount for when I am working (drive for a living so need to be able to use apps but when we go on road trips my phone doesn’t block ny view and it’s out of the way.

I have a couple of other cases I found on Amazon that have magsafe. I chose to splurge on the mous despite the others being fine. It did not include a screen protector. With the last couple of generations of gorilla glass I haven’t worried about my screen.

The magsafe works well. I even bought a magnetic battery bank as well as a wireless charger for my car. Both work extremely well. I’m currently burning through a ton of wallets trying to find one that works for me.

Can’t speak to the screen protector but I bought a really nice case from mous that has magsafe on it.

I have a couple of smart bulbs and switches and a couple of wyze cams around but I don’t want or need a smart doorbell, thermostat, etc. I like being able to turn off our bedroom light from my watch or phone and the smart switches work well for devices that need to be plugged in where the actual power cable is hard to reach.

Then why are you bitching about this? If you are already blocking the trackers, why the need for this post?

Not arguing that. I’m simply providing an option for those situations where you have no choice. Your other option may be to buy an old pixel or something and use it only for those apps that you can’t not use.

And as far as tech savvy? No, even the tech unsavvy to install it and set it up. Adguard isn’t pihole, you don’t have to run your own server, it does all of the work and if you can manage to browse tiktok or Twitter, you can use the app to white list any apps that need it to function properly.

I have seen maybe 10 ads in the past decade between adguard, noscript, etc. The times I’ve seen ads has been because I had to turn off adguard for a reason or forgot that I had a specific browser whitelisted for a reason.