My house phone is through Hughesnet satellite service. I called them. I had a very hard time understanding the representative because of heavily accented speech. She told me that I cannot block a number unless I have all 10 digits. She recommend I use the Donotcall list and to file a complaint with the FCC. I did tell her that there was no use in my continuing the service if my phone was unusable. She told me to just leave it off the hook. And she was sorry ma'am.

I was already in a bad mood. I wanted to really tear into her...but I did not.

I tried *69 to get the actual number but got a recording that is cannot be handled by automatic recall.

Olychick,

How long have your harassing phone calls gone on? I keep thinking they will give up if no-one answers.

We were getting lots of calls from unwanted telemarketers and what we found to help was to take the phone off the hook then they just get a busy signal. I think that some phones won't go off the hook but ours does. If your phone will, I suggest taking it off the hook for a day and see if that works. They totally stopped here afterwards.

Elizabeth, they never give up and have only gotten worse. I don’t answer but my voicemail does, so I’m sure it’s tagged as an in service number. I’ve often said if someone wanted to ensure their election , they should run on a platform of ending robot calls. Everyone would vote for them!

Does Hughes support Nomorobo? You can check at this link: https://www.nomorobo.com/signup, and if so it will be free. It works really well on our landline.

Last night we received 11 calls in a two hour period on our VOIP ”land line”. Calls from numbers not in our address book go straight to voice mail. If they leave a message I receive a text alerting me. Each of these incoming calls showed a different number but their message was the same, ”if you did not place this order, press 1……..”

I deleted each call.

I don’t ever recall getting pummeled like this on spam calls before.

I would get a whistle....answer the call and their ears off. Or answer it..disguise your voice and just keep saying HELLO over and over.

A coworker once answered a call and let the caller go on and on. When they stopped she said "sorry wasn't paying attention. Can you repeat that"...lol.

If it's a landlines just pick up receiver and hang up.

I'd be inclined to answer and get an idea who is calling and what they want - then make it clear they are wasting their time with you and tell them you want to be removed from their call list.

It's not a good idea to answer at all.

If you receive a spam robocall, the best thing to do is not answer. If you answer the call, your number is considered 'good' by the scammers, even if you don't necessarily fall for the scam. They will try again because they know someone on the other side is a potential victim of fraud. The less you answer, the fewer robocalls you will receive.

https://www.kaspersky.com/resource-center/definitions/what-are-robocalls

My number somehow got added to an autodialer from a computer and the phone would ring every 11 minutes 24/7. The phone company put a trap on the line and traced the calls back to the source and made it stop. This was back in the days of true landlines, so I don't know if a VOIP service can do the same thing. I would try calling customer service again during standard business hours and explain that this is not normal robocalling, but something else. If they say they cannot help, then ask to speak to a supervisor. Good luck!

Geez. Easy enough - cancel your landline immediately. Or if you don’t want to do that, leave it off the hook for a solid week, day and night. We haven’t had a landline for 10 years and don’t miss it.

If you have a cellphone, use it for all your calls. Tell your family and friends.

Some of us like our landlines. The call quality is better and my husband and I can both talk to a caller at the same time without having to be in the same room and putting the phone on speaker. They're more comfortable on the ear, and I don't have to carry a phone from room to room in my house.

I love my cell for texting, etc. but for actual phone calls give me a landline every time. At this point, my cell gets more spam calls than the landline, and both are easily screened.

Back in the day you could answer your phone, then set it down on the cupboard and walk away..I did this ALL THE TIME. No one ever called twice. Then it would tie up their line so they couldn't annoy anyone else. Of course your phone was also off the hook. Now that isn't the case. If you set it down and walk away, when they figure it out they can just hand up the line. I still do it, and I rarely have issues with repeat callers. Still if you've gone two days and not answered it why are they continuing to call??? I was told to never answer when my cell gets an unknown number. They are trying random numbers searching for one that belongs to a real person. If you answer or send it to voice mail they know it's a real number.

I have to maintain my Hughesnet phone as I have no true cell service at home. My cell uses Wi-Fi but only through the phone modem.

I do prefer cordless handsets.

When my kids were toddlers (before caller ID) I would hand the telemarketers over to them. The kids loved babbling into the phone like big people. Lol

Most unwanted calls come from automated equipment.

"Back in the day" as I remember it, that was not the case.

I often get wanted calls from numbers not in my contact file. Ooma routes them to Ooma voicemail. I don't need to listen to any messages that show as being 8 seconds or less or with a caller ID I don't recognize. I check every day or so when that particular message waiting signal is shown.

My cell phone gets plenty of unwanted calls. I answer all calls and disconnect if it's not a wanted call. I don't get a bee in my bonnet over such things.

Decades ago I used to answer telemarketers calls and place the phone in front of a police scanner. Got rid of them. :-)

20 or 30 calls a day is harassment. I do not have to take it in stride and will do everything in my power to have the use and enjoyment of my phone. That I pay for. It is in my home for my convenience not for criminals to advance themselves.

When I get a call, I check Caller ID. If it's a number I don't recognize or a call from out of state (usually with a quaint name of a town), I pick up the receiver and put it right back down in the cradle. Seems I get fewer calls after that. I even get calls from Hawaii.

However, I'm still jumping up and down to check the Caller ID because I don't want the call to go to the answering machine if it's a scammer. Yesterday I got a call from a "Kieth Miller". Oh - maybe it's one of the plumber's I called, better check. When I picked up, the voice said, "Hi, this is David So-and So." Obviously spoofing Keith's phone number.

"When my kids were toddlers (before caller ID) I would hand the telemarketers over to them. The kids loved babbling into the phone like big people. Lol."

OMG, that's too funny. Brilliant. 🤣

I too was going to suggest nomorobo.

Also check your phone itself....some of them have a built-in capability of blocking a number.

My landline phone has a "call block" button on it and you can just press it to block the current caller.

I would like a landline but can't manage that right now financially.

My sister screens all calls with her answering machine. A few months back she had an harassing rash of calls for two weeks so she changed her message to say this is the poleets. All calls are recorded and reported. Please speak clearly. All calls stopped within days. She has a good sense of humour.

We still have a landline. I have bundled with FIOS and have four phones strategically placed throughout the house and I am getting a slew of robocalls. We have donotcall which apparently isn't screening them. With caller ID I just glance and never answer and sometimes almost miss calls I want. My iPhone never rings because no one knows my number except my kids and husband. I don't even know it. I like talking on a cordless much better than the cell and use that to mostly text, rarely call anyone. I think I have only ever gotten two calls on my cell and I can shut it off on my watch.

My cell does a great job of blocking calls...too good in fact as I find VM left from people I want to talk to and I need to add them to my contacts otherwise it won't ring them through.

Our mobiles give us warnings if an incoming call is likely to be spam, so that's a plus. We have a landline (essential here because of our antediluvian - ok I'm exaggerating - it isn't actually pre -Noah but it feels like it - system in which we need a landline to get internet) . We get lots of spam/phishing calls on the landline, all at specific times of the day, all from different numbers (probably spoofed), but we have an answering machine and they all hang up immediately. The "no call" registry is fairly good, but politicians, solar panel salesmen and of course crooks ( but I repeat myself) still get through. Ultimately, we ignore the phone ringing and avoid the scamsters, political or otherwise, on the other end of the line.

"and my husband and I can both talk to a caller at the same time without having to be in the same room and putting the phone on speaker."

You know you can do that with a cell phone, right? Have people join in the call from their phone -- no matter where they are.

Please don't refuse to answer calls from numbers you don't recognize! It could be someone you know from another phone, or someone you don't know who needs to reach you with information from someone you know.

You know you can do that with a cell phone, right? Have people join in the call from their phone -- no matter where they are.

Yes, but it's much easier just to pick up two separate receivers when the phone rings. Plus we avoid the 'talking over each other' cell problem.

As for picking up unrecognized numbers: if it's a real person they'll leave a message, and then I call back. (That happens very rarely to me.)

I only answer unrecognized numbers if for some reason I'm expecting a call, like from a store to say my item is in stock. Otherwise, leave a message and I'll respond if it's legitimate.

I'm sorry you are getting so many calls, that is NOT normal robocall behavior. Calling your phone company and insisting on talking with a manager seems like the best advice so far. Good luck.

"Please don't refuse to answer calls from numbers you don't recognize! It could be someone you know from another phone, or someone you don't know who needs to reach you with information from someone you know."

If the call is legit, they'll leave a message and I can return the call. Or I can use it to screen the call...if they start leaving a message and they're legit, I pick up and talk to them.

"Our mobiles give us warnings if an incoming call is likely to be spam"

I believe this is a common feature, it must come from software run by carriers. My two cell phones (different carriers) both do this. But as with blocking numbers (next paragraph), it's a wall with enough openings to easily pass through such that the ones my carriers have aren't all that useful nor do they identify even half of what they're tasked with spotting.

Blocking individual numbers on a phone is useless because the calling systems change the phony caller ID numbers regularly.

It's a shame so many of you get agitated or feel violated by simple unwanted phone calls. Think of it as a reality to accept and move on.

Elmer, "simple" unwanted calls aren't the OP's issue. I think most of us have figured out ways to deal with normal unsolicited calls.

Not answering calls is no solution to them thinking it's no longer a good number, because it goes to VM and they get a connection. It's seldom a real person and if it is, it's some low paid flunky who doesn't give a whit about how you feel about getting calls. If you try to leave your phone off the hook (if you have VM and not an answering machine) if that's even possible without it hanging itself up, a new caller will go straight to VM, too, thus they get a connection. Nomorobo is not available through my carrier; I have asked and asked. My phone (landline) can block 30 numbers, then the memory is full. That takes one or two days. So I just turn off the ringer because I know anyone I want to reach me has my cell #.
Annie, you can change the settings in your phone to see calls from those who are not in you contacts list if you want.

When we had a land line we had a phone that you could shut off the ringer. If it was important they would leave a message on the answering machine. Robocalls, telemarketers usually hang up and don't leave messages. Try finding a phone you can shut off the ringer. You will still receive calls ,but not hear the constant ringing.

"am using my cell through Wi-Fi."

This does nothing - for the cell phone, a connection is a connection, whether from a tower or over wifi.

"I think most of us have figured out ways to deal with normal unsolicited calls"

nickel, you said you often don't answer the phone. Such practices mentioned by you and others was what I had in mind.

As per Annie's suggestion, I am looking at a new phone system with one button call blocking.

This is exactly why I got rid of my landline. Only one elderly family member persisted in calling my landline; all others were robocalls, telemarketers, wrong numbers and people soliciting donations. To add to the aggravation, my carrier was adding services I didn't request in order to pad my bill. I finally said " Enough! ". Elizabeth, I know you don't want to get rid of your landline, but sometimes you have to give up something to get something better.

I agree with Seagrass. I don't usually answer those types of calls, but in this case I would and wait to see if it's a person or a recording. If it's a person, they would be hearing a very loud noise of some kind.

Here’s my attitude about the issue in a nutshell, to go along with my advice above.

”When I discovered that beating my head against a brick wall hurts, I quit.” I’m all about de-stressing my life.

DH, on the other hand, says ”It’s the principle of the thing.”

We got a new cable package which included a free landline several months ago. I had to go buy some phones since we decided we'd like a landline again, just in case we needed it, and it was included.

I couldn't believe how fast the robo calls started! No one has our # that doesn't have our cell phone #'s so we turned off the answering machine on the phone as well as the ringer. Now I can use the landline if I want to call out but we don't hear any of the incoming calls.

Elizabeth have you ever heard of MagicJack? We had that for many years - I believe it runs the calls thru your computer connection. It's been a while since I had mine but a friend of mine still uses hers.

Better than Magic Jack is Ooma.

Ooma is a VOIP service independent of any other providers. You buy their device (called an Ooma Telo) for $80. You connect it to your router with an ethernet cable, then connect your phone to the Telo. We use a cordless phone but you can use a regular phone too.

The monthly charge is about $5 of federal and local tax, nothing more. If you want, for another $10 or so a month, you can get their premium service (which I have) that only allows calls from numbers in your contact file to ring the phone. Other calls go, at the user's option, to Ooma voicemail, or get a continuous ringing, or get a "this number is disconnected" message. I've had it for over 10 years and really like it. You can port your existing number to it if you want (meaning, you transfer your existing number, to continue using it) for, I think, $25.

Ooma telo

In areas with no cell coverage, some cell providers have what's called a Range Extender device. It functions like a mini-cell tower, the box provides a normal cell signal for phones and routes it over your home's internet connect. Yes, it's mostly the same path as connecting a cell phone using wifi, but it saves the trouble of having to change over your phone when you come and go from home.

Here's what I have

Verizon Network extender

Verizon provided me two for free (one for each home I have). I am a longtime Verizon customer, I don't know if that factored in.

There also exist what are called "Boosters" - those are signal amplifiers, they receive weak signals and rebroadcast stronger ones in both directions. These are cheaper but what I linked is not that.

Sorry you can't get cell phone reception -- although ours can be 'spotty' service. One of the reasons we dumped our landline was *because* of all the spam on it. We get 90% less spam on the cell phones.

We use 'speaker phone' on our cells when both DH and I want to participate in a call.

Chisue, you can also have a 3 way call. I find a call with the other side on speaker phone to be often unpleasant on the ear.

nickel, you said you often don't answer the phone. Such practices mentioned by you and others was what I had in mind. -- yes Elmer, and that's the way I (and probably others) calmly accept the fact that unwanted callers want to say my car warranty is running out (or whatever). And if they do bother to leave a voice mail (most are 15 seconds or less), blip, blip, blip, erase and they're gone, at my leisure. You of course are free to answer every call immediately if that's what pleases you.

As far as I can tell, neither you nor I get flooded with robocalls.

"As far as I can tell, neither you nor I get flooded with robocalls."

I don't know if I'm flooded or not flooded - certainly Ooma lets nothing through at all and I don't allow what I get on my cellphone to anger me or cause me to change my behavior. Call me, I'll answer the phone.

Elizabeth, I think your letter writing/complain filing is unlikely to change anything. Maybe it will relieve whatever frustration and irritation you've allowed to build up but little else. You're not telling any of those intended letter recipients anything they don't already know.

By definition, you'd know if you were getting flooded, so I conclude you are not ;-)

If I had your number, I'd add you to my phone's contact list and would certainly pick up when I saw "Elmer" was calling. That's what most of us do for friends and regular contacts, so we don't worry about missing desired callers :-)

Thanks, I feel the same about you too!

In rereading the OP, the problem seems to be mainly with a ”private caller”. These can be blocked. Anyone with a blocked number trying to reach you will be instructed to unblock their number and call again. This might help, for this singular issue.

Fortunately I only get about a half dozen calls a day. My house phone announces either the name or number, preceded by ’spam’ if it suspects such. It’s not very good at identifying it. If the problem became bad, I probably wouldn’t hesitate too long to change my number. So few legit calls on the house phone. But I do prefer using it for outgoing calls for reasons mentioned above.

If it happened to my cell phone, this would be a much bigger issue. This is the number most have. Fortunately ”decline” is pretty easy to hit.

For a while Verizon kept pushing some spam filter onto my cell phones. It was a nightmare because any time someone would call without a name to display, it would say ’unavailable’ instead of displaying the number. So there was no such thing as looking at the number and picking up if I recognized it. While this was something I could remove, they kept pushing it. After a few complaints I finally told a rep that they need to find a way to stop pushing it or they’ll lose me as a customer. Surprisingly, that worked.

I have discovered that the method of entering *60 blocks the last caller and *77 blocks all calls with no Caller ID. There was a recording that the blocking was active. I did not know these codes worked on anything but AT&T systems. Hughesnet informed me that there was nothing to be done without the 10 digit number to enter onto their web portal. The calls have stopped for now so perhaps that is working?

I'm glad you found a solution without having to change your number.

My Moto phone, on TracFone service, allows me to start a screening message that asks the caller to identify themselves. I use that if I think but am not sure that I recognize the number (not on my contacts list). Otherwise, I just don't answer, and in either case if the caller hangs up without a message, I mark it as spam and it is thereafter blocked. I can mark texts as spam also. On my home landline, though, with an old answering machine and no caller ID, I just don't answer. Those who know me know to start talking and I will pick up - and legit others will leave a message. I am pretty sure that I can *xx (don't remember the digits) to block, but just don't ever remember to do it.