How to Stop Spam Calls to Your Virtual Phone Number

 

Spam takes all forms nowadays with the explosion of communication capability by way of email, calls, and even text messages. There’s the occasional solicitation call, and then there’s a whole other category of relentless spamming to your phone number that seems unending.

Though you may not be able to eradicate 100% of these unwanted calls, you can use these measures to stop the vast majority of them.

 

1. Consider Switching Out Your Number

 

There is actually one sure way to get rid of all spam to your virtual number, and that is to simply get a new number. Obviously, this is not an option if it is your established business number that you’ve had for years; so, you can only remove it completely if it is not the actual number that people dial to reach you (if you’re forwarding calls to it from your main number), or if you haven’t had the virtual number for very long.

Many times, the problems with spam calls will present right away, as soon as you register the number, so it’s likely that replacing it is in fact a viable option.

 

2. Adding a Call Menu or Auto Attendant

 

One of the most common reasons that people want a service with an auto attendant is to use it as a first line of defense against solicitation bots.

When one of these calls into a phone system with an auto attendant, they cannot reach an actual phone because they would have to press a number to ring someone’s phone, which they obviously cannot.

Utilizing the Call Menu within your virtual phone system is a great way to easily ward off Robo-Dialers without much effort!

 

3. DNC Registry

 

This is something you really should do with any phone number you own as a precaution, but if you haven’t already, take a few minutes and use the following link to place your virtual number on the National Do Not Call list:

https://www.donotcall.gov/

It usually doesn’t block all unwanted calls, but it will significantly reduce them.

 

4. Add Numbers to Your Blocked Phone Numbers List

 

When you unfortunately get a number that is cursed with a magnetism for spammers and solicitation, and you can’t just get rid of the number, it’s often an ongoing battle to manage the unwanted calls.

One method that is very effective but potentially time-consuming, depending on how extensive the problem is, is to go through your call history and manually block each number from which unwanted calls came into your virtual number. You may need to continually do this, which is why it’s more damage control than a solution.

Talkroute lets you do this by simply logging into your online control panel, but other service providers may need you to contact them to block phone numbers.

 

5. Contact Your Provider

 

And that just might be the best course of action you can take, once you’ve exhausted everything you can do on your own to remedy the spamming problem.

Contacting your virtual phone service provider to stop excessive harassing calls can be helpful because they may be able to assist with escalating the issue and taking further steps.