Tracfone Moto G6 - any way to stop sudden deluge of spam calls to my phone/voicemail?

[stl_consumer]

I've been rifling through different threads but can't find anything that worked, so I'm posting and hope someone can help.

Ever since yesterday, my Tracfone Moto G6 has been receiving spoof calls every 10 minutes or so. (They use my tracfone prefix. So if my tracfone is 555-972-1234, the calls are all coming from 555-972-xxxx.) I've used this phone number for 15 years and never had a problem until now.

Anyone have any solutions, tips, a great call blocker, anything, to resolve this? I would really appreciate it. Thank you so much. I want to keep this phone number.

Here's what I've done so far:

* I set Do Not Disturb on my Moto G6, which at least forces the call to voicemail so I don't hear ringtone. But this means that legitimate calls from non-contacts also go to voicemail.

* I tried but can't seem to get my Tracfone voicemail to not take messages. I set Extended Absence Greeting on my Tracfone, but when I tested, it still said I could leave a message at the tone. (My thought was that as long as this spam is coming in--hopefully not forever--I could DND it to voicemail, and voicemail would play the extended absence greeting and then hang up.)

I would like to block these calls when they come in--preferably disconnect them before my phone rings--but I don't see that Tracfone has any sort of call blocker available. In the meantime, I'm reporting the numbers as SPAM (I assume clicking "Report as Spam" goes to Tracfone?) for whatever good that does.

[bobdevnul]

I've been rifling through different threads but can't find anything that worked, so I'm posting and hope someone can help.

Ever since yesterday, my Tracfone Moto G6 has been receiving spoof calls every 10 minutes or so. (They use my tracfone prefix. So if my tracfone is 555-972-1234, the calls are all coming from 555-972-xxxx.) I've used this phone number for 15 years and never had a problem until now.

Anyone have any solutions, tips, a great call blocker, anything, to resolve this? I would really appreciate it. Thank you so much. I want to keep this phone number.

Here's what I've done so far:

* I set Do Not Disturb on my Moto G6, which at least forces the call to voicemail so I don't hear ringtone. But this means that legitimate calls from non-contacts also go to voicemail.

* I tried but can't seem to get my Tracfone voicemail to not take messages. I set Extended Absence Greeting on my Tracfone, but when I tested, it still said I could leave a message at the tone. (My thought was that as long as this spam is coming in--hopefully not forever--I could DND it to voicemail, and voicemail would play the extended absence greeting and then hang up.)

I would like to block these calls when they come in--preferably disconnect them before my phone rings--but I don't see that Tracfone has any sort of call blocker available. In the meantime, I'm reporting the numbers as SPAM (I assume clicking "Report as Spam" goes to Tracfone?) for whatever good that does.

Since they are spoofing the from number it would be counterproductive to block them. You might wind up blocking someone in your area that you would want calls from. I do block numbers from states where I don't know anybody after checking to see if they left a message.

Since they are spoofing down to the area code and exchange number they will probably give up and move on to another exchange after a few days. There are only ten thousand number in an exchange. It doesn't take them long to try them all.

Are they leaving voicemail messages? These type of calls almost never leave a message for me. They are primarily scanning for numbers who will answer a call. Numbers that answer are collected for further more intensive spam/scam.

There are apps like NoMoRobo. I have never tried them.

TF generally will not turn off voicemail once it is set up. You could contact customer support and ask. They do have the ability to do it. They just don't by policy.

[hpham]

Anyone have any solutions, tips, a great call blocker, anything, to resolve this?

Check and see if your phone has a feature to block any caller that's not in your contact list. Legitimate callers not in your contact list can leave a voicemail. Spammers usually don't leave a voicemail.

[stl_consumer]

Are they leaving voicemail messages? These type of calls almost never leave a message for me. ..... TF generally will not turn off voicemail once it is set up.

Thanks, bobdevnul, Yes they are leaving a very canned-sounding robot message (a message that doesn't even wait for VM to pick up before it starts playing out, so what gets recorded on my VM is something like "...if not, press 2".) I don't always listen to the whole thing. In some cases, I hear "to connect with Apple Support Advisor, press 1".

I don't want to turn VM off because I do use VM. Too bad TF doesn't allow us to temporarily turn it off.

UPDATE: Maybe reporting the spam helped, or maybe like you said, they just got tired of leaving msgs?, because this morning I'm not getting the spoof calls so far. However, I did just get 2 spam calls within the last 40 minutes. This might be a long day...

I think I need to ask TF if there is a spam application I can install to deal with this problem when the spam call is coming in.

[stl_consumer]

Check and see if your phone has a feature to block any caller that's not in your contact list. Legitimate callers not in your contact list can leave a voicemail. Spammers usually don't leave a voicemail.

Hi, hpham, I don't have that feature. :-( I do have a Phone setting called "Filter spam calls", which says it "prevents suspected spam calls from disturbing you"--but it's already turned on! Bummer.

Time to see if there's an app available (and that will work on TF) that will block likely spam numbers as they are calling.

[Serial Port]

I used to use an application called "Youmail" which offered a free version and a more advanced paid version. It essentially bypasses your carrier's voicemail and forwards the "no answer" calls to their own server instead.

[happygrrl1]

I’ve used NoMoRobo on my house phone but haven’t tried it on my cellphone. It helps but it doesn’t completely eliminate spam.

[stl_consumer]

I used to use an application called "Youmail" which offered a free version and a more advanced paid version. It essentially bypasses your carrier's voicemail and forwards the "no answer" calls to their own server instead.

Interesting--I'm looking at it now, it may be more than I actually want. Thanks for mentioning this service!

Oh, and here's an update: I noticed on my local Nextdoor website that other folks in my county have been/are encountering a similar deluge of spoof calls. Which makes me wonder what exactly is going on.