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Yeah this is called 'neighborhood' spoofing - they do it to get numbers similar to yours (sometimes they'll even appear as a known contact).

I use an app called nomorobo ($2/month) that's basically a blacklist that gets continually updated to block these calls prior to ringing my phone. The way they deal with the neighborhood spoofing is having local access to your contacts so they don't accidentally block any real numbers (though those that happen to be an exact match will go through).

My spam calls went from one to two a day to zero.




Interesting, but honestly 2$/month seems very high unless you get a lot of these calls.


2$/month is not “very high” unless you’re living in the third world.

I don’t mind paying it either since I can report numbers that get through to their blacklist. I feel like I’m fighting back.


It's high when you're basically paying because of a fatal flaw in the telecom system.


I’d prefer just an iOS whitelist (which seems like a much easier solution to this problem) - but this doesn’t exist.

The do not disturb work around mutes all notifications which makes it useless for me.


Yes. I called a number back one time when I saw that it had a Facetime option. I figured it must be a real person. Somebody answered my video call and they weren't very happy with me.


I've been using a free alternative to Nomorobo called Hiya that's been working really well, for what it's worth.


I think Hiya uploads your contact list to the cloud - I'd rather pay the $2/month rather than rely on an unknown business strategy.


Agreed, but how do you know for certain they don't surreptitiously upload your contacts after you have granted permission?

Sounds like you are on iOS?




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