Are your days interrupted by calls from companies you’ve never heard of or wish you never had? These calls often are intended to defraud you, frighten you as with calls identifying themselves as being from the Internal Revenue Service threatening to arrest me for not paying taxes  (it’s not IRS); the call is to get you to reveal information about yourself

that leads to identity theft. Another scam is telling you your computer has been invaded by malware or viruses.

Spam calls increased 300% in 2018, costing  24.9 million people in the U.S. an estimated $8.9 billion. Sometimes these callers are able to obtain the use of nearby area codes and local prefixes to make you think the call is from someone nearby.

What can you do?7

If possible, do not answer these calls. If you’re operating a business from home, you can’t do this because the call might be from a prospective customer or opportunity.

Caller ID can help. If you can identify the caller, pick up the phone. If not, let it ring through. If no message is left, chances are it’s a nuisance call.

Do sign up for the federal “do not call” lists on FTC’s donotcall.gov or phone 1-888-382-1222. This stops legitimate callers, but not the rest of the robocallers and spammers.

The Telephone Consumer Protection Act provides companies are to call only between 8 a.m., and 9 p.m. and they must tell you it’s a sales call before proceeding. You can tell the caller to stop calling and the law requires they stop. The Federal Trade Commission can fine up to $500 per call in violation of this law, and sometimes, the FTC goes after the robocaller or spammer.

You can sign up with Private Citizens and for $20 a year be put on their DoNotCall List.  (800) Cut-JUNK. http://www.private-citizen.com/

To stop unwanted calls on cell phones, one by one.  Open the Phone app, (1) select Call History or Recents, tap the blue information icon to the right of the number to “Block Contact” or “Block Caller” or (2) select Menu > Settings > Call Reject > Reject Calls. You can either add numbers or find numbers that have called you on the Phone Log.

You can also rely or pay your carrier to limit the junk calls that come through. AT&T’s Call Protect is free but only for postpaid customers and in areas with HD Voice coverage.  T-Mobile’s  Scam ID and Scam Block is free, but Sprint’s  Premium Caller ID is $2.99 / month and Verizon offers Caller Name ID at $2.99 per month.

You can also subscribe to third-party apps, such as Nomorobo, RoboKiller, Hiya that daily update their databases and stops incoming bad calls before they reach your phone.

How to Block Robotexts and Spam Messages

You don’t have to put up with robotexts and junk messages. Here’s how to block spammy texts.

You hear the sound of an incoming text message and excitedly check your phone, but it’s just a junk message sent to you by a spammer trying to con you into tapping a link, opening an attachment, calling a number, or doing something else that’s likely to cause you trouble.

Robotexts and spam messages are a fact of life, just like robocalls and junk email. They may not be as invasive as a spam call, since you can largely ignore them, but that doesn’t make them harmless. Some phone plans may charge you for incoming text messages and smishing (SMS phishing) attacks can be even more dangerous if you’re not careful.

However, you do not have to put up with them. Just as you can fight against spam phone calls, you can also block and stop robotexts with the right tricks and tools.