Few things are more irritating than that incessant drip of commercial calls in which they offer us all kinds of products and services that we have not requested. It is what is known as phone spam. That in the best case; at worst, the risk of telephone scams. Is there a way to stop this harassment? How can we put an end to sales calls once and for all?
There are many "recipes" to solve this problem, although not all of them are equally effective. In this post we are going to analyze everything in our hands to free ourselves from being the target of these annoying and repetitive commercial practices.
There is a fairly effective method to stop being bothered by calls coming from certain phone numbers: the call blocking. It is an option that all smartphones have and that works very well. You just have to go to the call log, select the number in question and apply the blocking option, which in some phone models may be hidden in the options menu.
Unfortunately, this is not always going to work to put an end to sales calls. It doesn't matter if we block a specific number, since these companies have a long list of available numbers from which to continue calling us and bothering us. We block one number after another, but the calls don't stop. Maddening.
But call blocking, although it is a useful resource in some cases, it is by no means a definitive solution. If our goal is truly to put an end to that unbearable avalanche of commercial calls on our phone, these are the most appropriate solutions:
The Robinson List
Any user can sign up for the Robinson List to stop receiving unsolicited commercial calls. It's about a free ad exclusion service, as specified in their own websites.
The legal basis of the Robinson List is based on what is recognized in the European Union Regulation 2016/679 about data processing for advertising purposes. It establishes that any advertising activity, and this includes telephone advertising, must be reconciled with respect for the right to personal data protection. It is also based on the Organic Law 3/2018 on Protection of Personal Data, as well as in many other legal regulations related to telecommunications and electronic commerce
Any private citizen of legal age can register for free on the Robinson List. In the case of companies, it is necessary to pay a fee. Registrants will immediately stop receiving unsolicited advertising and commercial calls.
The process to register or sign up for the Robinson List is very simple. This is what needs to be done:
- First we go to their website and click on the option "Get on the list."
- Then we have to choose between two options: enter our own number or someone else's.
- Next we must fill a form with the following data:
- DNI, NIF or NIE
- Name and surname.
- Birthdate.
- E-mail.
- Password.
After this, all that remains is to accept the terms of use and finish the process by clicking on the button "Sign up". Then we will receive an email activating our account. Blocking telephone spam has immediate effects. From this moment We will only receive calls from companies to which we have given express consent.
Caller ID and spam protection
There is a Google service, only available for Android phones, called Caller ID and spam protection which allows us to see the name of the company that is calling us, as long as it is registered in Google My Business and other similar directories. We can activate it by following these steps:
- First of all, we open the application Phone of the smartphone.
- Then we click on the three dots icon seen in the upper right.
- Let Settings.
- In the next menu, we select Caller ID and spam.
Among the many options that this service offers, the one that stands out is filtering calls so that our device does not ring, but the numbers are recorded in the history.
External applications: TrueCaller
Finally, it should be noted that we always have the possibility of resorting to the help of external applications to definitively put an end to commercial calls. There are many to choose from, but one of the most recognized and used is TrueCaller, available for both iOS and Android devices at the following links:
It is a comprehensive application that, among many interesting functions, includes spam caller id. TrueCaller's effectiveness is based on the fact that it works with a spam list that receives contributions from a community of more than 350 million users. In addition, it has an assistant who performs the real-time call filtering, providing the user with instant information about the call so that they can decide if they want to answer or not.