How to stop spam calls

Features depend on your device, software, region, and carrier.

iPhone: follow Apple’s unknown-caller instructions for screening or silencing options.

Android: for Google’s Phone app, follow Google’s caller ID and spam protection instructions. Other phone apps have different settings.

Check your carrier’s free and paid options. Read an app’s privacy policy before giving it contact or call access. Filtering may silence wanted calls and will not identify every scam.

Start with the option your phone and plan already support. This is a compatibility comparison, not a tested ranking. US guidance checked September 8, 2026 and rechecked September 15, 2026; recheck plan features before paying.

Scroll the table sideways to compare all columns.

For another carrier or a reseller plan, check that provider’s own support page. Do not assume the host network’s app is included. If you regularly need calls from new clients, a clinic or a delivery driver, consider screening or labels before silencing every unsaved number. A label or familiar caller ID is not authentication.

Write down the missing feature first: category controls, a manageable allow list, caller lookup or another specific need. Stay with free controls if they already meet it. We have not tested comparative blocking accuracy or missed-call rates.

• Check the exact setup. Confirm phone model, software, country, carrier, prepaid/postpaid status and the line you want protected. Do not assume a feature works on both SIMs.
• Read the data permissions. The FTC notes that some blocking apps access contacts. Check what the provider collects, why it needs access, and whether calls or voicemail pass through its service. Decline an app whose requirements you are not comfortable with.
• Choose what happens to a flagged call. Blocking, silencing, labels and voicemail are different outcomes. Save important numbers and check filtered calls; an allow list in one service may not override another filter.
• Check the price and cancellation separately. Verify the charge per line, any included benefit or trial, renewal and how to turn filtering off. Verizon warns that deleting its app does not disable filtering.

Change one setting at a time, then check whether wanted calls still reach you. If you already shared money or information during a call, use the exposure-specific recovery guide; installing a blocker does not resolve that exposure.

Reports help the FTC and its partners investigate unwanted calls and improve blocking data; they do not guarantee your calls will stop.

• Report unwanted calls at DoNotCall.gov.
• If you lost money or have information about the scam, report it at ReportFraud.ftc.gov.
• Block the displayed number if appropriate, but remember that caller ID can be spoofed.

See the FTC’s reporting guidance.

Scammers can rotate or spoof caller ID, so blocking one displayed number may not stop future calls. A familiar area code does not authenticate a caller. A call alone does not tell you how your number was obtained.

Use filtering and verify unexpected requests through known contacts. See Scams A–Z for patterns and personal-information removal to limit public listings.