Here’s a way to block 99% of robocalls, political calls, sales calls and surveys to your land line. Please read the whole thing because there are some surprises in it.
- Sign up for a Google Voice number.
- In Google Voice settings, set up your home land line as a “linked number”.
- In Google Voice settings, enable “Screen calls”.
- In Google Voice settings, enable “Filter spam”.
- In Google Voice settings, go to Legacy Google Voice. Go to Settings, Calls, and for “Caller ID (incoming)” select “Display my Google Voice number”.
At this point, if someone calls your Google Voice number:
- They’ll have to state their name the first time they call you, unless they are in your Google Contacts. (If you need to receive robo-calls from someplace like your library or your county emergency alert, create a Google Contact for them.)
- When the calls arrive at your home land line, they will display your Google Voice number as the caller ID.
Next, set up your home land line to accept calls solely from Google Voice:
- Buy a white list call blocker such as this one from Amazon. You want a white list only. You’re going to program it to accept calls from a single number.
- Program it to accept calls solely from your Google Voice number.
Junk callers simply don’t go through the identify-yourself process at Google Voice. I’ve never had a robocall or even a human telemarketer bother to complete the process.
Now you have to tell all your friends, family, and associates that your new number is (your Google Voice number here).
Bonus Extra:
But what if you don’t want to tell all your friends about your new number? You can actually work with Google to transfer your EXISTING home number to be your new Google Voice number. Then you have to sign up for a new phone number at home, but nobody ever calls that number (because your white list device doesn’t answer for them.)
Total cost: Less than $100 for the device, plus 30 minutes of setup.