Block nuisance calls
Make sure fraudsters, phishers and telemarketers can’t talk to you
These days it’s easier than ever to stay in touch with people all over the world, but it has a downside in that it’s also easy
for unsolicited calls to reach you. One cause of this can be that you’ve given your personal data to social networks, apps or services, perhaps because they require it as part of setting up an account.
Even if you trust that they won’t share your details, a security breach could leak data and lead to fraudsters, phishers, and identity thieves calling you to try to do you harm – not to mention the barrage of telemarketers or phoney PPI organisations that, should your number get onto one of their databases, will hound you day after day.
This is where Hiya (free, apple.co/2kI5Qsg) tries to help you out: it maintains a database that collates the numbers of known spammers and scammers, and will warn you when one is trying to call: on the Phone app’s incoming call screen, Hiya adds a yellow alert for spam calls from the likes of telemarketers and surveyors, or a red ‘No entry’ shield next to any number it identifies definitively as a “scam or fraud” – and you have the option to block both and pass them to voicemail. This is possible thanks to CallKit, part of iOS 10 that enables thirdparty apps to augment your iPhone’s call blocking and identification services.
You can help boost Hiya’s effectiveness, too: within the app there’s a page for reporting or blocking unwanted numbers; the info you provide there is sent back to Hiya’s developer, which, after a number is reported enough times, will add it to the public database. That database is updated daily – and automatically, so you don’t have to worry about constantly installing app updates – so that everybody using Hiya is protected as quickly and easily as possible, all thanks to community efforts.
Make preparations
One thing that might raise concern when you first open the app is that it asks for permission to access your contacts. According to Hiya’s privacy policy, this is to “filter out numbers that may look spammy, but are actually legitimate (like your Doctor’s office)”.
After you’ve run through the app’s intro, go to Settings > Phone > Call Blocking & Identification and ensure the switch next to Hiya at the top of the page is on. Then read on to learn how to work with Hiya to avoid answering unwanted callers.