β Silence unknown callers
β’ 600 words β’ 3 min β’ updated
I absolutely never get any spam calls. This has been true for many and many years now.
What is the formula to do so? Just be an uninteresting, boring person. Be invisible. !next
Sure, this is one way, but let’s get more practical and realistic. I have only three guidelines, assuming you do not want to live as an hermit1:
1) Silence unknown callers #
Apple, Block or avoid unwanted calls on iPhone:
You can avoid unwanted calls by identifying callers, blocking certain people, and sending unknown and spam callers directly to voicemail.
Turn on Call Identification
iPhone can help identify incoming calls using information from Apple Business Connect, supported carriers, and supported call identification apps.
Go to Settings > Apps > Phone, then tap “Silence Unknown Callers”.
A must-have. There’s absolutely no reason to let strangers be able to interrupt you on a whim.
This can only work effectively if you do not feel FOMO. My philosophy is: if there is a pressing matter, people or institutions will make an effort to reach out, whether by multiple attempts or by employing alternate means (e.g. email? WhatsApp?) to do so.
Exception: If you are waiting for a phone call but do not know the origin number (e.g. from a pharmacy, medical doctor, job interview, prospective landlord). In this case, turn this setting off temporarily.
2) Disable most app notifications #
There’s no reason to let your phone disturb you. It should be a tool that you control, not the other way around. Disable notifications for most apps, especially social media.
Alternatively: Enable “Do Not Disturb” most of the time. These days most phones can be configured to enable it on a configurable schedule, or based on location (e.g. when you’re home, or at work).
Exception: Let your loved ones be able to reach you. iOS has settings to allow certain apps and/or contacts to bypass DNS. Being reachable by loved ones doesn’t need to entail emergencies only. Note that this only works if this is a small list. If you decide that you love everyone (noble!), then you’ll need a two-tier love system to decide who you love the most.
3) Protect your Crown Jewels #
Tate Jarrow, Protect your Crown Jewels!:
[…] you can reduce the majority of your risk by protecting the handful of your most important assets β I call these your crown jewels. These are probably only a fraction of your digital assets, and can be done much more easily and quickly β so start there.
I rarely hand out my main phone number when signing up for various online accounts. I don’t want to be reachable in the first place (see guideline 1)), so why expose my number to third parties?
I have a second phone number that I use only for chat apps (WhatsApp, Telegram, etc), so that there is no need to leak my main phone number to acquaintances. And I have a third phone number that I use whenever signup forms make it mandatory to provide a number and when “0000000000” or “+12131234567” or similar do not work.
- β -
- is the most important. There was a point in my life when I would use my main phone number for everything. Then I kept getting spam phone calls (and texts). I would still ignore them anyway (1)) β it feels that I’ve been doing so since forever β but it was annoying to get spammed.
It’s never too late to do 3): you can always get a new phone number and start over.