How to Stop Spam Calls and Regain Sanity on Your iPhone

Stop spam calls with the reliable service Incogni. Image courtesy of Incogni

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Spam calls are a seemingly never-ending nuisance with no solution, but there are a few ways to get relief built into your iPhone and through services like those provided by Incogni.

It's not just you — Robocalls, spam calls, telemarketing calls, and scam calls can fill up your call logs, email inbox, voicemail, and Messages app relentlessly. However, there is no need to give up and spend countless hours sifting through the garbage left behind by unwanted calls.

First, you need to take some important and necessary steps to prevent spam calls from getting through. Second, you need to start combating the problem—data brokers.

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How to Stop Spam Calls on Your iPhone

Robotic calls waste our time in many ways: by forcing us to answer only to find ourselves with useless unwanted calls, by interrupting what we were doing in the first place by causing our phone to ring, and by filling our call logs and voicemails with useless junk. Luckily, Apple has a few built-in features that can make things a little more tolerable.

Blocking a spam caller number on iPhone is simple, but not exactly effective. Robo call centers have a virtually unlimited number of phone numbers to call from, so blocking one number will not stop calls from a specific location.

However, it can’t hurt. Here’s how to block a spam number on iPhone.

Open the Phone app and tap Recents.
Find Robotic Number.
Tap the blue “i” icon next to the number.
Tap Block Caller.

Blocking individual numbers can only have a limited effect, as other numbers can and will receive unwanted calls, so the next step is to ensure that you only receive calls from the numbers you want. Each option is stricter than the last and will depend on the user’s needs.

First, users can use Focus Modes to control which people and apps can contact them. Focus modes can be found in the settings under the “Focus” menu item.

Setting up Focus Modes takes some effort, but it ensures that only people on your allowed list can call your iPhone. However, this option can prevent desired calls from going through, similar to another setting called Mute Unknown Callers.

By going to Settings, then Phone, users can turn on the Mute Unknown Callers feature and send anyone who is not in your contacts or who you have not called recently to voicemail. The phone will not even ring.

Automatic calls and spam are a never-ending annoyance. Image Credit: Incogni

Parents and some professionals may find this setting or Focus Modes too strict, as unknown numbers can call from school or work at any time. While the settings in the focus modes can be adjusted to make them softer, the “Mute Unknown Callers” feature is not granular.

Another way to stop spam calls is with third-party apps that integrate with the Phone app and use block lists of spam calls and known robocalls to stop incoming calls. These call filtering apps can be effective, but many of them require an expensive subscription and, again, only solve a symptom of the problem.

Do what you feel necessary to gain some sense of control over your iPhone, but don’t forget that unwanted calls are still coming despite all these settings and changes. Silence, blocked or not, robocallers still have your number and will still try to reach you.

So, that brings us to step two: fighting data brokers.

Why Spam Calls Happen in the First Place

Before we get into how to deal with data brokers, you need to understand what they are and why you should deal with them. If you’re wondering why spam calls and robocalls have become so common in recent years, there’s one simple answer.

Data brokers buy and sell data online, as their name suggests. When you browse the web, fill out web forms, and make purchases, you leave a digital trail that is tracked by these data brokers.

Companies that collect your data, like Amazon or that random candle shop you found on an Instagram ad, collect your information and make some or all of it available for purchase. One of the most coveted pieces of information a company can obtain and sell is a person’s phone number.

Spam calls, robocalls, telemarketing calls, and scam calls are all made by companies that buy up phone numbers en masse and start calling them. So the best way to stop robocalls is to contact the source.

Again, you can block numbers, set up call filters, and pay third-party apps to try to block unwanted calls, but these are all just patches for a larger problem. Stop the calls, and the rest is not that important.

Incogni Can Take the Fight Back to Data Brokers

Now that you've locked down your phone to the point where you're comfortable and you understand why spam calls are a problem, there's one last step left to protect your sanity. No, you don't have to start calling data brokers one by one.

Incogni makes it easy to request data deletion. Image source: Incogni

Not only is it time-consuming, but it’s also not easy to find them, their numbers, or convince them to actually delete your data. If you tried to do it yourself, you’d probably be better off just getting spam calls.

Instead, trust Incogni to do all the hard work for you. It’s easy – just sign up for an Incogni account and let them walk you through the data broker hoops.

Here's how the process works:

Sign up for an Incogni account and give the company permission to act on your behalf.
Incogni scans people search sites and data brokers for your data.
Removal requests are submitted, then resubmitted until something is done.
Repeated scans prevent websites from re-adding data about you.
The lists of data brokers, people search sites, etc. are updated regularly so Incogni can stay up to date.
If a data broker appeals a removal request, Incogni processes the appeal for you.

That's it. While your Incogni account is active, your data will be actively removed from sale and websites, preventing it from being added to spam call lists in the first place.