You’re in an important meeting when your phone buzzes. Immediately, you glance at your screen and notice it’s an unknown number. Do you risk distorting the meeting to pick the call, or you let it go to voicemail, only to discover later that it was an important call? Well, if only you could instantly tell if it was a legitimate call or potential spam call, that would’ve made things easy.
Nowadays, unsolicited calls from spammers, telemarketers, and robocallers have become a daily reality. As a result, it’s necessary you have a reliable spam call identifier on your phone. It is not enough for phone carriers to use machine learning analytics, databases of known spam numbers, and algorithms.
In this guide, you’ll learn about how phones identify potential spam calls and how to block these calls usings spam identification apps/tools on your phone.
Table of Contents
What Are Potential Spam, Spam Risk, or Scam Likely Calls?
“Potential Spam,” “Spam Risk,” or “Scam Likely” calls are calls from phone numbers that have been discovered in a database of scam phone numbers. Moreso, if your phone carrier cannot verify a caller, it can flag it as “Spam Risk” or “Scam Likely.”
Furthermore, such calls happen when the machine learning analytics that your phone carrier uses discovers a phishing call duration, origin, or frequency record from a number.
For instance, Verizon uses machine learning to detect if it should label a call as “Potential Spam” when someone attempts to call you.
How Do Phones Identify Potential Spam Calls?
Your phone carrier uses a machine learning analytics engine to identify potential spam calls. The phone carrier typically does this by analyzing incoming calls with their phone numbers for any phishing activity.
This machine learning analysis works with behavioral analytics like the frequency of calls from a number, call type & origin, and how many times they called. Also, the algorithm compares the phone number to a database of scam numbers.
So, if the call shows a similar behavior to a number in the database or aligns with it, it’s labeled as “Potential Spam,” “Spam Risk,” or “Scam Likely” and displayed on your caller ID. Although you can rely on these warnings, this automated process can wrongly label calls sometimes. In such a case, you can filter potential spam calls on your iPhone with third-party apps.
Further, service providers use a set of information from their call detail records to facilitate this process. Carriers and telephone exchanges (or switches) typically generate call detail records from calls made through voice over internet protocol systems or over the phone.
These call detail records have basic metadata about the call. Such metadata include call location & origin, call duration, media type—SMS, audio, etc., and whether the call is connected or not.
Besides the information obtained from call detail records, phones have features that help them identify potential spam calls and mark them as such. For instance, Apple possesses a “Silence Unknown Callers” feature on its phones operating iOS 13 and later.
At the same time, Android phones have a Google Phone app with caller ID and spam protection features, which enables you to mark potential spam calls. Carriers also have systems that detect these scam likely calls:
- AT&T has Call Protect run by Hiya.
- Verizon has Call Filter operated by TNS’ Call Guardian.
- T-Mobile has ScamShield run by First Orion.
Additionally, third-party apps such as CallApp, RoboKiller, YouMail, and those powered by First Orion, TNS, and Hiya enable you to mark calls as spam.
Why You See Spam Risk Calls On Your Phone
Most times, attackers obtain your phone number from a leaked list of numbers from a legit source or via phone number generators. In more extreme cases, they steal your phone number from your carrier. They achieve this through social engineering or hacking into the phone.
Generally, spamming involves sending too many unsolicited messages. And attackers mostly use these type of calls to commit fraud. In 2020, phone scams reportedly caused over $19 billion in damages in the US.
Meanwhile, the objective of these scam calls differ based on the scam. However, they all begin with you answering phone calls from unknown numbers.
How To Block Potential Spam or Spam Risk Calls
Many people typically ignore spam risk or potential spam calls because they don’t know how to block these numbers. But you can stop these attackers from calling by taking preventive measures—blocking them.
How To Block Potential Spam Calls On Your iPhone
If your iPhone is operating on iOS 13 or a newer version, you can stop spam risk by activating the “Silence Unknown Callers” feature. Here’s how to do it:
- Go to Settings.
- Select Phone.
- Toggle Silence Unknown Callers on.
How To Block Potential Spam Calls On Your Android
Android phones can also filter suspicious calls. However, blocking calls tagged “scam likely” is a proactive way to stop attackers from calling you.
So, you must first set the Phone by Google app as your default phone app. Here’s how to do it:
- Go to Settings.
- Locate Apps and Notifications.
- Under Default Apps, select Phone by Google to make it your default phone app.
Afterward, navigate to the app’s settings to activate spam filtering. Here’s how to do it:
- Launch the Phone by Google app and visit Settings.
- Select the three-dotted icon next to the search bar.
- Choose Spam and call screen.
- Enable See caller and spam ID.
- Toggle the Filter spam calls on.
Turn on Caller ID Announcement
You can announce a caller’s number or name by turning on caller ID announcement from your Android phone.
- Launch the Phone by Google app.
- Click More Options → Settings → Caller ID announcement → Announce Caller ID.
- Select either of these options: Always, Only when using a headset, or Never.
Mark Calls as Spam
If you want to stop receiving calls from a specific number and report the spammer, you can mark all calls from that number as spam.
- Open the Phone by Google app.
- Select Recents at the bottom.
- Click the call you want to report/mark as spam.
- Choose Block or Report Spam.
Alternatively, you can long-press the call you want to report as spam. Then click Block or Report Spam.
How To Block Potential Spam Calls On a Landline
If you’re getting suspicious calls on your landline, a proactive step to take is adding your number to a particular registry for telemarketers to avoid. To get started, register your phone number with the National Do Not Call Registry at www.donotcall.gov or call 1-888-382-1222.
While this may not block all spam calls, mostly that of fraudsters, it can be helpful to a large extent. Again, it covers only US regions, which means you can still receive spam calls from abroad.
Read this article: Top WhatsApp Scams in 2024 And How To Avoid Them
What Happens When You Answer a “Spam Risk” or “Scam Likely” Call?
Regardless of the machine learning analytics engine and other proactive measures put in place, you may still accidentally answer incoming calls from spammers. And this has some consequences on your phone number:
- Social engineering attacks: If you divulge any form of personal data during such call, you risk being attacked.
- Risk of voice recording: Spammers can record your voice and use it for other illegitimate activities.
- Increased risk of future scams: Picking up suspicious calls can expose you to further attacks in future because spammers can target your phone number with schemes like a tech support scam.
Bottom Line
While spam calls can be frustrating and annoying, our phones’ ability to identify and block these potential spam calls is continuously improving.
These smartphones leverage machine learning analytics, advanced algorithms, and databases to provide information about the legitimacy of incoming calls.
Irrespective of all these, you should be vigilant, stay informed, and employ spam call identification tools to stay free from such unwanted calls.