Keir Thomas looks at useful gadgets to help you reduce nuisance calls
Consumer expert Keir Thomas helps you find useful gadgets to reduce nuisance calls.
UNWANTED telephone calls – known as cold calls – are a true nuisance. If it’s not random calls asking if you’ve been involved in an accident, it’s fake technical support calls that aim to hack your computer. They can come at all hours of the day or night.
It is possible to fight back, though. While the deceptive techniques used by these kind of people mean you won’t be able to block 100% of calls, you can certainly reduce their number significantly.
Getting started
For most of the callblocking gadgets here to work as intended you’ll need to ensure you have the caller display feature activated on your phone line.
You might get this free but this will depend on which phone package you’re signed up to. BT quotes an extra £1.75 per month in addition to your line rental.
Caller Display means that the number of the incoming call will be displayed on compatible phones even before you lift up the handset, but it’s this same technology that the callblocking gadgets use to discover – and block – the nuisance number.
The gadgets mentioned below require installation. Although this is relatively easy and usually only requires you to plug your phone into the device, and then plug the device into the phone socket, you might need some help – particularly if your phone socket is in an inaccessible location.
Gadgets
The CPR Call Blocker Shield is hugely popular and also very simple. It only has one button, which reads BLOCK NOW. All you need to do upon receiving a nuisance phone call is press that button. That number is then automatically blocked so it can never pester you again, and the call terminated. You then hang up as usual.
The CPR Call Blocker Shield even comes with 2,000 nuisance numbers already programmed into it. You can also block up to 1,500 numbers yourself – although let’s hope you never get that many nuisance calls! Instructions are provided for removing any number you might accidentally block and you can also block things like overseas calls.
The CPR Call Blocker Shield costs £49.99 and can be bought online from www.cprcallblocker.com or 0800 652 7780.
Truecall Call Blocker takes a different approach in that it’s like having your own receptionist. Truecall Call Blocker answers calls for you by asking the caller to identify themselves. This happens silently when a call comes in, so you aren’t aware of it.
The requirement to identify themselves is enough to put off most people in call centres, who immediately hang up, but if the caller actually responds then your phone rings as usual and Truecall tells you who the caller is. It’s then up to you whether you take the call, or block it.
You can programme Truecall with your friends and family numbers so it knows to let these straight through each time.
Truecall is perhaps a little more difficult to set up and use compared to CPR Call Blocker but offers more flexibility, and includes an answering machine, too. It costs £100 from www.truecall.co.uk or call 0800 0 336 330. n