How to block spam calls without sharing your contacts

Why the usual way fails

Many caller ID apps work by building a shared database out of their users' phone books, so your contacts become part of their product. Blocking by number alone does not help much, because spammers switch numbers all the time. Sending everything unknown to voicemail means you miss real calls, and listening to voicemails later takes longer than the call would have. What you really want is to know who is calling and why before you pick up, without giving away your data in the process. Built-in carrier filters catch some of it, but they only label a call as suspected spam and leave the decision to you with no extra detail. And picking up to check is exactly what some scammers want, because a live answer tells them the number is real and worth calling again.

How Who's Calling + SPAM Guard helps

Who's Calling + SPAM Guard is an Android app that answers unknown numbers for you. The caller hears a prompt asking who they are and why they are calling, and you read their words live on your screen while the phone is still ringing, with a spam risk score next to them. Your contacts ring as usual and are never screened. The app says it shares no contacts, records no caller audio and keeps no call logs, and it works through conditional call forwarding on busy, which the app helps you set up with one dialled code.

Step by step

1. Install the app from Google Play and follow the call forwarding setup it fills in for you.
2. Make a test call so you can see the screening working.
3. When an unknown number rings, read the live transcript and the spam risk score.
4. Answer, send it to your transcript inbox, or block and report it in one tap, and read any saved transcript later when it suits you.
5. Leave your contacts as they are, since people you know ring straight through.

Tips

• Never confirm personal details to a caller you did not expect, even if they know your name. Hang up and call the company back on a number you look up yourself.
• Watch the colour of the call screen. It changes with the spam risk level, so you can judge a call at a glance without reading every word.
• Report the spam you block. Each report feeds the shared risk score, which helps the next person who gets the same call.
• If calls still ring straight through after setup on a Samsung phone, check Auto Blocker, which can quietly block call forwarding.

Questions