You can’t get them to stop calling! If a U. S. company were calling you, you could put your phone number on the Do Not Call list, and that should prevent most companies from calling you (but not charities.)
But these calls appear to come from foreign scam call centers, based on the fact that they keep changing the numbers. Scammers, domestic or foreign, do not use the U. S. Do Not Call list.
Also, scammers “spoof” the number that they call from. Also, they change the spoofed number, to get around the blocks that you put on specific numbers.
The number displayed on your phone is not the number they really called from. A scam call center uses technology to make the number he calls from appear to be any number he wants. It’s called “spoofing.” The number displayed on your phone may be a number near you, but they are actually calling from somewhere else, possibly a scam call center in Asia or Africa.
Everyone gets scam calls and texts. It’s very annoying, and seems to be on the increase. Scammers use a robocall system that automatically dials thousands of numbers a day.
You can make some changes to reduce the number of scam calls you get.
If you answer calls from unknown numbers, then they know the number is active, and you’ll get more calls. The best thing you can do is to stop answering, let the incoming calls go to voicemail.
Other things to try:
- Every phone has a setting to silence unknown calls. Set your phone to auto decline any call not in your Contacts list, and the calls will go to voicemail.
- Your cell phone carrier may have a scam call screening service, that stops many calls before they reach you. For example, T-Mobile offers this service. Verizon has a Call Filter app for iPhone.
- If you have Android, turn on Google “call screen.”
- If you have an iPhone, turn on “Silence Unknown Callers” to silence any phone number you haven’t interacted with.
Other options:
- Get a new phone number. The calls may decrease. But, they might increase, if the people who had that phone number before you were on a lot of spam/scam call lists.
- Get a temporary phone number, such as Google Voice, for your friends and other contacts.
- Talk to your Senator and Representatives. Seriously. Until the U. S. laws are changed to outlaw spoofing, and to reduce spam calls, we will all continue to get scam calls and texts.