How to stop cold calling – Seven tips to avoiding unsolicited and unwanted phone calls

Hundreds of thousands of nuisance calls are officially recorded ever year – but many more don’t ever get reported.

Thankfully there are some ways to easily block and report these unwanted calls from scammers and sales teams.

How to stop cold calling?

Register for free with the Telephone Preference Service (TPS)

It is free to opt out of solicited sales and marketing calls by simply registering with the (TPS).

It is a legal requirement that all UK organisations (including charities, voluntary organisations and political parties) do not make such calls to numbers registered on the TPS unless they have your consent.

To be a part of it, ring 0345 070 0707 or go to the TPS website.

This scheme will help to filter a lot of calls, but may not stop scams, calls from companies that you have “opted in” to, market research calls, or overseas companies.

Screen your calls

Make sure your phone has caller display and you should consider only picking up for numbers you know.

If the unknown number is a legitimate caller, chances are they will leave a message and you can get back to them.

Make a note of cold call numbers and report them

If you have caller ID, make sure that you write down the cold call number after they ring.

You can dial 1471 to check the number if you don’t have caller ID on your phone and it will reveal this to you unless it is a withheld number.

Once you have the number, you should report it to TPS on 0345 070 0707.

They can contact the company and pass any complaints to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), who can take action against repeat offenders.

Manually block their number

Some phone packages, like ones offered by BT or Sky, let you block specific numbers, but it is costly and some have limited amounts you can register.

BT have a package, which lets you block ten numbers for £5 a month, or their package stops any withheld numbers for £6.05 a month.

Buy a call blocking phone

You could also splash out on a call blocking phone, which should help curb nuisance calls.

Which? reviewed a selection of cordless options and displayed their

The top five were all priced between £30 and £40.

Keep your name off sales call lists

Take your name out of the local directory, as many companies, particularly local businesses, use these to target customers.

You should ring up the phone company that provides your phone service to take your name out of their phone book.

If you have to give your details to a company, make sure you ask them to not pass on your details to third parties, and ask them not to call you for marketing purposes.

Always ensure to “opt out/in” when signing up your details to a company to prevent them from calling.

Stop nuisance texts

To stop nuisance texts, forward it to 7726 – this spells “SPAM” on your phone keypad. This will report the sender to your mobile network company.

Can you get an app to block cold calling on your phone?

The Telephone Preference Service (TPS) Protect app allows the user to easily send off a report about the scam caller from your phone itself.

It also allows you to search numbers on its database and rate incoming calls to judge whether you can trust them before you pick up.

The app is free to download but you’ll have to pay 99p after the first 60 days to unlock additional features, such as the ability to automatically divert nuisance calls to voicemail or set up a personalised block and approved list.

And then you can also block calls by sector, such as accident claims, or allow ones from companies you’d like to hear from such as charities.