Blocking calls on your BlackBerry

How do you deal with calls from unknown numbers? Some are in the camp that if they don’t know the number they don’t pick it up — this is obviously more common for personal cell phone users. Others, like me, are far too curious as to who’s calling to let the phone ring out. Unfortunately, the experience is rarely pleasant. Lately, I’ve had numerous calls from the same number, saying that I have to act now to lock in low, low interest rates, and to press 9 to talk to someone. Ugh. It’s an auto-dial, so the calls come at all times of day and night. How do I block this? Most wireless carriers, in my experience, won’t be of much help. You’ve got to block it at the BlackBerry level. The problem with many of these auto-dialers is that they’re rogue operations that circumvent the National Do Not Call Registry. Many people are on that list yet still receive many calls from telemarketers. There has to be another way to stop them. Back in February we discussed Advanced Call Manager, an application which allows you to create lists of numbers and assign to them specific actions. Clearly, one function you could use in this instance is to enter all of your problematic numbers into a list and automatically drop the call. You could give them the old-school busy signal, but that would work much better if it were a human trying to contact you. Similarly, you can get Black & Whitelist, which is a bit cheaper and allows similar functions. If spending money on an app just isn’t in the cards, you can go with an on-device solution. It won’t send the call straight to voicemail, but you will never know the spammer is calling. Just go to Profiles — Advanced Options. Hit the Menu button and then go to New Exception. Name it, then enter the rogue phone number in the next field. Turn the ringer to off, and you’re set. Now the number will silently ring while you continue on with your day.

About the Author

Joe Pawlikowski is the Senior Editor at MobileMoo.com and has been covering the mobile industry full time since 2007. When he's not writing about the tech scene, he can be found discussing his personal love - baseball (and more specifically the New York Yankees) as well as writing on his personal blog.