Asklemmy

Airplane mode or MySudo

I know they don’t have the best reputation, but Truecaller’s ‘Voice Assistant’ feature has been a godsend for me. The basic bot answers calls from unknown numbers and transcribes their response before ringing, and only if they don’t hang up. I’ll look at my phone to see I have a few missed calls from unknown numbers, only to find that Truecaller intercepted them all and they hung up once they heard the message that the call was being screened. It’s great.

Folks that call for legitimate reasons that aren’t in my contacts generally leave a message and I get the call once they’ve left it. Folks that are in my contacts ring as normal.

Port Phone number to twilio

Set up call rules for incoming messages. Drop off calls from the same area code three digits as your number.

Then forward to your phone

You can do the same for SMS.

I want one step further, and got a new number in Montana, the least dense state. And I know if any messages or calls come in from a Montana number it's purely spam, so I drop those calls.

You can go a couple steps further, get a bunch of twilio numbers, and give them out to different businesses when they require a phone number. Then if you ever drop the relationship with that business, you can drop the number and if the number leaks you know where it came from.

Try "Should I Answer?" works flawlessly for me. If you don't subscribe, you have to manually update the database every week or so, for which you can get a notification.

Maybe it's time to change your number. If you want to keep your current one maybe port it into something like google voice where it can sit and eventually the spam will stop.

I have my main number that I've had for over a decade on GV and then I have my direct number that I give out sparingly, mechanics, plumbers, etc that need to contact me and I need to receive the call, my GV number is set to not ring at all aside from messagea.

I dunno, have you tried living on a continent with actual consumer rights? Pffft 😅