Life is busy enough without wasting time on spammers, scammers, and telemarketers. Whether you are suffering from insistent injury lawyers, fraudulent car warranty representatives, or a drunk-dialing ex, there is a way to stop the endless calls and messages. The major carriers and phone manufacturers have upped their game against unwanted calls and messages in recent years—let’s examine how you can effectively block them.
WIRED also has guides on how to protect yourself from AI scam calls, avoid spam with disposable contact info, guard against smishing attacks, and avoid phishing scams. Frustrated by the whole situation and curious why no one’s been able to stop the barrage of spam calls? Check out WIRED senior writer Lily Hay Newman’s article on our perpetual robocall hell.
Updated June 2026: I tested the outlined steps, updated details throughout, and added new testing photos.
Before we dive into blocking options, there are a few points to know:
It’s easy to block individual numbers on your iPhone. Here’s how:
Once a caller is blocked, you won’t get notifications when they call or send a message, but they won’t be able to tell that they have been blocked and will still be able to leave voicemails. You can review and unblock callers anytime. To do so, follow this sequence:
Unfortunately, blocking individual numbers isn’t very effective when telemarketers or scammers are contacting you, as they use multiple numbers and change them frequently. But there is something else you can do to filter unknown callers and senders:
If a message looks like spam, you can swipe left without opening it, tap the trash can icon, and then Delete and Report Spam. If you open a message that turns out to be spam, always tap the Report Spam link under the message and then Delete and Report Spam.
It’s straightforward to block numbers on an Android phone, too, but the method differs among manufacturers.
If you are getting a lot of unwanted calls and messages, and the numbers keep changing, you might want to filter out any unknown numbers. Here's how to do that on an Android:
The major carriers offer apps that can help you recognize nuisance numbers and block calls or messages from them.
You can also report spam messages to your carrier for free by forwarding them to 7726.
There are countless Android and iOS apps claiming to offer spam protection and robocall blocking, but I advise caution if you’re thinking about using one. For these apps to work properly, you must grant them access to your call logs and contacts. While apps like RoboKiller ($90 per year) or Nomorobo (from $3 per month) are legitimate, they won't necessarily do a better job than the methods outlined above, and there are many unscrupulous apps out there that may share or sell your data or fail to hold it securely. Do some homework before trying a third-party app, and keep their business model and privacy policy in mind.
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Source: Wired
