Any specific recommendations for answering machines or landline phones which block calls?
Don’t overthink it.
Whatever they do it’ll have to work on a landline.
I don’t think there are answering machines for cell phones, because they all have the m that functionality built in. I think all “answering machines” work with land lines.
Moving the existing phone number to a cell phone might be one way to handle it. Google has somewhat decent spam handling.
My mother would prefer to keep the landline.
From our many threads on this topic I think @puzzlegal nailed it for the OP’s Mom in post 13. Works on landlines, nothing new to learn how to use, simple from the end user, etc.
First mistake: expecting Bell Canada to do anything that benefits their customers. Their corporate cultural is to operate as though they still had a monopoly. I was able to change companies and keep my number. Even after 25 years, I still get a letter from them every month like clockwork asking me to come back. But never showing any interest in knowing why I left.
I get those “nobody there” calls a lot, too. What’s up with that? I mean, you called me, so start talking. The worst offenders on actual calls are the Medicare Advantage Plan calls. Just when I think they’ve got the “I’m not interested” message, a new batch starts up. That and the “Final Expense”. Effin’ ghouls.
What type of answering machine do you use? And who offers this free service you speak of? Is it an app, or something valid only in the continental US of A? Canada has a “do not call” thing which works as well as you might guess.
Looking it up, it offers free landline service for voips but seems to want an American.carrier. It looks very helpful otherwise.
That part isn’t (necessarily) evil or stupid. Just not set up for your advantage. Set up for their advantage.
Their goal is to keep every one of their workers talking nonstop. Making a useless call costs them exactly $0.00. Put that together, and it’s profitable for them to place calls even if they can’t talk right now.
In more detail …
So they use a software tool called a predictive dialer. They have a hundred or however many workers making sales calls. But the workers don’t dial the calls. The computer guesses when each worker will be done talking and dials a dozen numbers at once for each worker who’s predicted to be almost ready in a few seconds. Only a couple of those calls will be answered by live potential customers. Then the computer scrambles to connect those few live calls to the workers who’ve just become available. If they’re doing it perfectly, each worker gets a live caller immediately.
But they’d much rather hang up in silence on 10 potential customers who answered the phone than let a single agent sit there with nobody to talk to for more than a couple seconds.
So they over-dial, and we ordinary folks see that as incoming calls that end in silence and a hang-up. Don’t worry, they know you answered and you’ll be prioritized for another call soon. For sure after just 2 or 3 abandoned calls at their end you’ll have the extravagant privilege of being able to listen to a sales agent try to sell you vinyl siding or car insurance or a Medicare plan …
It used to be a federal offense to spam call cellphones in the US, I guess the FCC just kind of bent over and opened up for them without really ever making any new or different laws about it.
My answering machine is a Panasonic, but it’s really old. I’d be really shocked if this model is still being made.
Honestly, i have to think the market for answering machines is much smaller than when i last bought one, and it might be harder to get a good one.
Nomorobo may be a US thing, and i forget who sponsors it. I was surprised it existed, and researched it because i assumed it was a scam. But it’s been great.
I don’t think there are different rules for cell phones and have lines these days. But I’m not exactly keeping up on that.
A friend of mine (in Ontario) uses some kind of service that allows him to screen out robocalls (by playing a long message that ends in something like “press 2 to connect your call”). I’m pretty sure his landline is a VOIP phone, and I think the screening ability might be something that his VOIP company provides. Sorry for the lack of concrete details.
Of course, that wouldn’t prevent a determined (human) prank caller from getting through.
Some landline phones can be configured to ask a caller to press 1 or # for the call to go through. Look for phones with something like “smart call block” feature. This will block most spam and automated calls while still allowing real people to get through. The service providing the landline may also provide a similar smart call block feature that can be dynamically enabled. Check with the landline company to see if it’s something they offer. However, elderly callers may be confused by the instructions and may not be able to do what’s required, so they would end up being blocked as well.
We get several spam calls a day, all spoofed numbers. The most common are where the number shows our area code, but the identifier says “Out of area call” or something like that, so it’s clearly a spoofed number. Anyway, we only answer calls if we recognize the caller. Also, I find most spam callers hang up after three or four rings, where a real caller would wait for voicemail to pick up.
We have a landline, and we use cordless phones (also a cheap way to get an extension in another room, if that is useful). It announces the call information, either just the phone number if there is no caller name, or just the caller name if it has that (pronunciation of names is horrible, so we often end up going to the phone to see what it says). It also has a built-in answering machine, very programmable. Both the main unit and the satellite units show the caller ID info.
For the OP, that seems to be a lot of work for a prank caller, if all the calls are spoofed with different numbers (or maybe there’s an app for that, I don’t know). In any case, I think your mother’s best bet is an arrangement that allows her to choose which calls to pick up and which ones to ignore. Then she would be depending on a) recognizing the caller from the caller ID, or b) a legitimate caller leaving a message. Pretty much what @puzzlegal described, and like we have.
The fact that there are so many calls in a day, as well as this from the OP:
…suggests that at least some of the calls aren’t scammers, but people making prank calls.