Are you tired of being approached all day long by telephone canvassers? You are not the only one ! Fortunately, today there are simple ways to stop being bothered.
Cold calling is a real pain. An operator who offers you new packages, a so-called energy saving expert who encourages you to carry out work, a training organization who wants you to benefit from your CPF… All excuses are good to harass you and have you have to wear. A real pollution that spoils your daily life. However, if it was difficult to escape a few years ago, it is now quite simple to put an end to it.
Faced with abuse by professionals and complaints from consumers and associations, the Government has in fact taken measures to limit the problems linked to telephone canvassing. So, since 1er January 2023, Arcep (the telecoms police) prohibits the use of numbers starting with 06 and 07 for canvassing, these prefixes now being reserved for individuals. In addition, the authorities have tightened the rules for canvassing by limiting calls to specific time slots, from Monday to Friday, from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. then from 2 p.m. to 8 p.m., and by limiting the frequency of solicitations. Above all, Arcep has allocated special numbers for telephone platforms. Enough to do an initial visual sorting of potential unwanted calls, when the number is displayed on the screen. From now on, canvassing professionals must only use numbers starting with the following sequences:
- 09 37, 09 38 or 09 39
- 01 62 or 01 63
02 70 or 02 71
03 77 or 03 78
04 24 or 04 25
05 68 or 05 69
09 475, 09 476, 09 477, 09 478 or 09 479
In addition to these regulatory measures, which are not always respected, there are filtering and blocking functions directly integrated into smartphones on both Android and iOS. For several versions, Android has had an automatic detection function for unwanted calls which has proven to be very effective against direct sellers. As soon as it spots an unsolicited number, the system’s built-in Phone app reports a spam call in a notification, without even ringing the device. Practical to avoid being disturbed! You can then very easily block the number permanently. Simply long press on the caller’s number to display a drop-down menu to select the blocking option. To send unknown numbers to the answering machine, go to the Phone app, then tap the three little dots in the top right and Settings. Look for the Blocked numbers, Block numbers, Report as spam or equivalent option and enable it.
On iPhone, it is very easy to block a phone number. To do this, go to the Phone application, then press the Information button (a blue i in a circle) of the number to block. Then simply press Block this correspondent. This only works for numbers that have already contacted you, but it’s still a catch. To get rid of unwanted calls whose number you don’t know, before the touts come to harass you, you can automatically forward unknown and commercial calls to your voicemail. To do this, open your iPhone’s settings, then go to Phone. and press Call blocking and identification then Silent unwanted calls to ignore them.
Finally, note that in addition to blocking numbers on your phones, you can always use Bloctel, the free (public) service to which you must register in order to no longer be contacted by touts. Although it is not 100% effective, it can still limit damage, particularly if you combine it with the blocking solutions offered by mobile operators. For example, the Orange Telephone application allows you to identify numbers that are considered spam. For its part, Free offers a free “filter unwanted calls” option, with a list of unwanted numbers that it has established and manages. By combining all of these methods, you should no longer be bothered by direct sellers.