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Turn on call screening and carrier scam blocking
Why it matters: Screening puts a pause between a convincing voice and a decision, and that pause is what phone scams work hardest to remove.
On your path if you picked “An older parent or relative I help” for “Who's at home?”.
Do it
- On iPhone, open Settings, then Apps, then Phone, and set Screen Unknown Callers to Ask Reason for Calling or Silence.
- On a Pixel, turn on Call Screen and Scam Detection in the Phone app's settings; on other Android phones, turn on the Phone app's spam and scam call protection.
- Turn on the carrier's free spam and scam blocking in its app.
- Save family, doctors and the bank's real number as contacts so they ring through.
Check it worked: Unknown callers on your relative's phone are screened or labeled before it rings, and the carrier's free scam blocking is on.
Simply put
Call screening is like a receptionist who asks 'who's calling, please?' before putting anyone through. That small pause between a convincing voice and a decision is exactly what phone scams try to remove.
In detail
Screening doesn't stop a spoofed call that appears to come from a saved contact, which is why the safe word and callback stay in place. We found no independent measurement of how much screening reduces AI voice scams.
As a story
A number your mother doesn't know calls her phone. Before it rings, the phone answers for her and asks the caller to say who they are and why they're calling.
The caller won't say and hangs up. The phone never rings, and your mother never has to decide anything in a hurry. She goes back to her crossword.
Later you call her. Your number is saved, so it rings straight through. She mentions a couple of odd calls this week that never got past the screen. You remind her that if a call ever sounds like you and asks for money, she still hangs up and calls you back. Then you talk about her garden.
If this is new to you: Worried they'll miss important calls? Save family, doctors and the bank's real number as contacts, and those ring straight through. Everyone else is screened or labeled first.
Points toward the Long View: a pause before every unknown call, however convincing the voice.