How to Block a Phone Number from Calling Your Landline

When looking for solutions for blocking phone numbers from calling your landline, you will typically find three common suggestions: 

1. 1. Sign up for the Do Not Call Registry
2. 2. Use a Traditional Call Blocker
3. 3. Contact your service provider

Unfortunately, none of these suggested tips actually do anything to stop unwanted landline calls. Each of the above offer some relief, but not much.

For example, the Do Not Call Registry actually allows calls that most people would like to block. Even if you sign up for this list, the first thing to note is that the FTC does not and cannot block calls. In fact, the following calls are all allowed by the Do Not Call Registry:

• * Political Calls are legal
• * Political Robocalls are legal
• * Charitable calls are legal
• * Debt Collection calls are legal
• * Purely informational calls are legal
• * Survey calls are legal
• * Calls from companies you’ve recently done business with are legal

Meanwhile, traditional call blockers are able to stop at most 5% of unwanted landline calls. The biggest reason for this is that they rely on blocking specific numbers. But the easy work around for scammers is to simply call from another number that you haven’t blocked. This works in their favor because they have access to hundreds of millions of possible phone numbers. Since most call blockers can only handle up to 1,000 numbers, it is impossible for them to stop even a small percentage of these calls.

And good luck contacting your service provider. The only advice they offer is to not answer your phone if you don’t recognize the number. Two problems with that advice are: 1) spoofing technology makes it easy for scammers to trick your caller ID (and, as a result, you) 2) a phone constantly interrupting your home life can hardly be considered a “solution.”