Many business owners have been struggling recently with nuisance phone calls and even spam text messages from phones that look legitimate. This is because robocallers and scammers can mask themselves using a number with your local area code in order to trick you into answering the call or following a suspicious link.
Such nuisance calls are not always scammers but sometimes just unwanted, unsolicited sales calls trying to get you to sign up for a service. You can use various free search tools to help figure out if a number is legitimate for example is 02081333668 a real number? You can search it and see what others have said about the kinds of messages or phone calls they have had with this number to help determine if it is a telecoms scam or not.
Stopping Nuisance Phone Calls
So how can you stop these nuisance phone calls from coming through to your business in the first place?
- Do not answer the calls from flagged numbers or numbers you do not recognise. They can track who picks up their calls and this may result in the calling again in the future possibly from different numbers. Keep your answer phone active so that legitimate callers can leave you a message to ring them back.
- Do not assume a call is legitimate just because it is coming from what appears to be a local number
- If you answer a call and hear an automated or recorded message, then immediately hang up
- If someone calls you claiming to be from a certain company that you are interested in working with, end the call and find the company number yourself rather than take their word for it.
- Do not interact with a voice prompt or press any numbers to connect to a representative. This lets the unsolicited callers know that your number is real, and they may go on to sell your phone number to another company or begin targeting you more frequently.
- Block numbers if you think they are suspicious. This will eradicate the problem if you are getting repeated nuisance calls from the same number, but it is a big job if you are looking to put a permanent stop to all spam callers as you have to block each individual number after they have called you. This also does not stop companies from calling from withheld numbers.
- Block calls from withheld numbers. Doing this in combination with blocking individual numbers may help to massively reduce the number of nuisance calls that you get on a daily basis – if these callers cannot get through then your number may be flagged on their system as not real or disconnected meaning they may leave you alone and will not sell your information on to other scammers.
- Look into your mobile phone provider to see what security services they offer and what their solutions are for preventing these calls. Many major providers offer some kind of free robocall blocking service for their customers.
- Use a third-party app or software to block callers that they believe to be scammers or salespeople.
These techniques can help you minimize nuisance phone calls from interrupting your day so that you can focus on running your business.
