Because I have my phone number listed online as my primary business number, I get a lot of unwanted phone calls: offers for credit card processing services, offers for business loans, website builders, office supply companies, promotional product sales, as well as all the common scam calls from “Google” and “Microsoft” and “Windows Support” and the “IRS“.  The national Do Not Call list appears to be completely worthless.

The spam callers change phone numbers frequently, and unfortunately, I can’t screen out incoming calls based on area codes.  It’s very common for people to keep their cell phone numbers when they move.

A few months ago I started looking at different phone apps that can assist with this problem.

The one I’m using now is called Mr. Number.  I’m using the IOS version.

When calls come in, they are checked against Mr. Number’s (large) list of known numbers.  They tag calls as “scam and fraud” (red alert) or “suspected spam” (yellow alert).  You have the option, for each type of call, to allow it to ring, with the alert showing below the number, or send it to voicemail.

It’s super easy to report a new number as spam.

Pull up the number under “recents”, copy it, and open Mr. Number.  It automatically sees the phone number on your clipboard and asks you if you want to do a reverse lookup on it.  If you do that, it gives you the option to block or report as spam, with categories of what kind of spam it was.

After several weeks, lots of unwanted calls have been blocked and flagged, I’ve reported a handful of numbers as unwanted, with no false positives (legit calls incorrectly blocked or rejected), with no problems or glitches with normal phone use.

The app is free.  Highly recommended.