Whether it’s a call regarding your expired car warranty or something more sinister like someone impersonating a government agency and looking for your personal information, unwanted calls on our cell phones have become an unfortunate part of the smartphone age.
Fortunately, however, the major cell phone companies are starting to fight back. Some features come standard while others are available at an additional fee, but this is good news for everyone, especially for seniors who scammers are more likely to prey upon.
Oak Hill Center for Rehabilitation and Nursing has a look at what each major carrier is doing combat fraudulent calls.
AT&T offers Call Protect, which blocks potentially fraudulent calls without you even knowing about it. In addition, calls that may be spam are labeled as such when you get the call, as the caller ID will say “Spam Risk” when you look at your phone to see who is calling. For an additional fee, you can get caller ID on numbers that aren’t in your contacts along with features that allow you to send callers from suspicious numbers directly to your voicemail.
Most Verizon customers have free access to their Call Filter feature, which also blocks suspicious callers from reaching your phone. Their add-on feature is called Call Filter Plus, which gives you caller ID features and a visual spam risk meter that will help you determine whether you want to answer a call, send it to voicemail, or block the number outright.
T-Mobile, which recently merged with Sprint, includes a free set of tools called Scam Shield in their mobile plans. It alerts callers on their screen if an incoming call is a potential scam risk while it also blocks numbers that their database knows are malicious. Two other nice features include free caller ID and access to a free proxy telephone number. This is a number that you can give out to companies or anyone else you wish where you would prefer to keep your main number private.
To learn more about Oak Hill Center for Rehabilitation and Nursing and all of the services they offer, visit http://oak-hill-center.facilities.centershealthcare.org.
