Spam calls, junk calls, nuisance calls, call them what you like, they’re very much unwanted,
they’re annoying, and in the worst cases they can lead to something much more sinister like scams.
And whilst they are a part of our everyday life to an extent, that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t
take steps to protect yourself from them. Thankfully, your iPhone has a number of features
built-in to help you identify and block these kinds of calls, texts and emails, and in this
video, I’m going to show you exactly what to do. OK, let’s get into it.
We’ve all been in that position where, you answer a call from a number that you don’t recognise,
only to hear a long pause, followed by either a machine voice telling you that you owe taxes
that you must pay immediately, or a call centre agent trying to talk to you about
a car accident that you never had. Obviously, not all calls that you don’t recognise are like this,
but some are, and it’s important that you’re able to protect yourself from these calls.
So if you receive a call from a number, and you know that you want to stop that
number from being able to call you again in the future, simply do the following.
Head to the phone app, and tap on recents. For the number that you’d like to block, tap the ‘I’
or info button to the right of it. Scroll to the bottom of the page, and choose Block this Caller.
And just like that, your iPhone will stop that number from being able to call you again.
Now, the way that most scams operate, is that they change their phone numbers frequently,
so this isn’t going to protect you forever, but it will make it so that that particular number
can’t call you again, and you would simply repeat this for any new numbers that pop up.
Now the previous tip, blocking a number, means that the number can’t
be used to call you or text you, but what if you receive a text rather than a call,
how do you block from that view? Let me show you. Here’s a message in my inbox, and actually this is
a great example, because this is an actual spam text that I got sent the other day.
There’s a couple of things you could do here. The first is to tap on the contact button up at
the top, then choose Info. In here, you can see that you have a Block this Caller button down at
the bottom, so you’ve got the same option as we had in the previous tip, which will block
this contact from calling or messaging you. But if we jump back to the message, you can
see that we can report this message as junk. You then have the option to delete the message,
and report it as junk. Doing this does exactly what it sounds like,
the message is deleted and reported to Apple as junk. I would assume that if they
receive enough alerts about a certain number, they then take action on it.
If you get a lot of these, there’s an option in Settings that you might want to turn on.
Head to Settings, then Messages, and ensure that Filter Unknown Senders is toggled on. This, as
it suggests, sorts messages from unknown senders into a separate list, which can obviously help you
filter out and deal with the junk, rather than it getting clogged up with your real messages.
OK, so we almost know the full package of how to block someone, but there is one more option,
and that’s to block someone via an email. So, in the Mail app, I’ve located an item of
junk mail that’s made it into my inbox. I’m going to tap on the avatar for this contact up here,
then click on the email address. You can see that you then have the option to block this contact.
This is especially useful if you’ve ever had junk mail where,
even though you’ve unsubscribed multiple times, the sender still insists on sending you mail.
But, to make the most of this, there is a setting that needs switching on. Head to Settings, then
Mail, and scroll down to where it says Blocked Sender Options. Here, ensure that Move to Bin is
selected, rather than Leave in Inbox. You could also toggle on Mark Blocked Sender, so that you
can identify them when they’re in your bin. The reason why you need to ensure this is
selected, is because if you don’t, Mail simply highlights the blocked email, but still allows it
into your inbox, which kind of misses the point in my opinion, but there you go, an easy fix.
There is a little bit of an extreme option which some people might find useful,
I don’t use it personally, but I don’t receive a large volume of junk phone calls, if you do,
you might want to consider this. Head to Settings, then Phone,
and scroll down to there it says ‘Silence Unknown Callers’. If you toggle this on,
any calls you receive from unknown numbers will be automatically silenced by your phone, and sent to
your voicemail, allowing you to screen the calls. Now remember, an unknown number is anyone not in
your contacts list, which is why I said this is a bit of an extreme option, but if you’re
really struggling, you might be OK with this. Just ensure that as many of the numbers that
you receive calls from are in your contacts list, and be prepared to miss some calls that you might
have actually wanted to receive, although keep in mind, you can obviously listen to the voicemail,
and call them right back. Also, just to show you,
back on the previous screen, you can view all of your blocked numbers here as well.
The last thing I’m including here is the option of installing a specific app, to help
you deal with nuisance callers. TrueCaller for example, and this isn’t a sponsored endorsement,
it’s simply the most well reviewed app that I was able to find, helps you to identify
and block possible spam calls really easily, and their free version offers those basic features,
although I do believe the free version comes with ads. Like I say, this isn’t an endorsement,
and there are loads of other apps out there that you could try instead,
but if nuisance calls are a real issue for you, and if you’ve tried all the things
we’ve covered already in this video, this could be something to consider.
So there you go, tips to help you fight unwanted calls, emails and texts. Are there any good tips
that I’ve missed out? Drop me a comment and let me know. Oh, and a good rule of
thumb with all communication like this, if you’re ever unsure, don’t answer the call,
or just end the call, until you’ve been able to research the number on Google,
if someone is legit and they really need to speak with you, they’ll try you again.
If you found this video useful, do please consider leaving me a like, and subscribing to my channel
for more content like this in the future. See you on the next video.