YOUR phone is packed with clever ways to beat spammers and scammers – saving you stress and potentially a costly nightmare too.
But they’re easy to miss against the seemingly endless line-up of features stuffed into our modern mobiles.
BLOCK MYSTERY CALLS
One option if you’ve got an iPhone is to simply shut out calls from unknown callers completely.
Spam and scam calls almost always come from unknown numbers, after all.
But you can have them silenced so that they never ring.
They’ll simply be sent straight to voicemail, and you can then check if they leave a message.
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If they’re a spammer, there’s a good chance they won’t leave a message.
But it takes the pressure off potential scams because you can review the voicemail at your own leisure.
Just go into Settings > Apps > Phone > Screen Unknown Callers and then set it to Silence.
If you’re unhappy with how it’s working, you can change it back at any time.
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CALL SCREENING
There’s a more advanced system for unknown callers that might be even more effective.
It uses your iPhone’s built-in AI to answer the phone for you when an unknown caller rings.
It’ll ask them who they are and why they’re calling – all before your phone even rings for you.
Their answer will be transcribed in real-time on your iPhone’s screen, so you can read what they’re saying.
And then if you want to pick up, you can.
This is a great option, because not all unknown callers are spammers or scammers.
First, make sure that you’re updated to the latest iOS 26 software.
To get it, go into Settings > General > Software Update and install any downloads you’ve got waiting there.
Then go into Settings > Apps > Phone > Screen Unknown Callers and set it to Ask Reason for Calling.
And like before, you can change this setting back to Never at any time if you just want your phone to work like normal.
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SPAM-BUSTER
One often-overlooked feature is something called Call Blocking & Identification.
This is where your phone checks incoming callers against a long list of known spammers or scammers.
Then it filters those out from regular phone calls.
You’ll need to download some call ID apps, which are apps that maintain these long lists of dodgy numbers.
There are loads out there, so it might be worth downloading a few. Popular examples include Truecaller and Whoscall.
Then on iPhone, go into Settings > Apps > Phone > Call Blocking & Identification.
You can then switch on Silence Junk Callers, and activate any of the call ID apps that you’ve installed.
It’s also possible to get these Call ID and Blocking apps on Android phones too.
SCAM DETECTION
If you have an Android phone, there is an extremely powerful tool available to you.
It’s called Scam Detection, and it works to identify scammers in real-time as they’re talking to you on the phone.
Google says that it has a vast amount of knowledge on how scammers scam victims.
And this has allowed it to create a system that can pick up the signs that you’re being conned in real-time.
It’ll automatically run in the background of calls that could be scams.
And if the likelihood of a scam is high, the feature will alert you with “notification, sound, and vibration”.
You’ll see a pop-up that warns you about the scam, and gives you the option to either End Call or mark the conversation as Not A Scam.
To turn it on, open up the Phone app then tap on More > Settings > Scam Detection > Turn on Scam Detection.
It’s worth noting that Google warns: “Not all scam calls can be detected.
“Scam Detection is not 100% accurate and scammers constantly change their tactics.
“Always use caution when you answer calls from unknown numbers.”
This is quite a new feature, so it’s currently only available on a few phones.
If you’re in the UK, Australia, Canada, India, or Ireland then it’ll work on the Google Pixel 9 and later. If you’re in the US then it works on the Pixel 6 or later.
But it’s likely that Google will roll it out to more people in the future.
