Unwanted "Private Caller" Calls

We have a thing with our house phone where it will not let private calls come in, you can try doing that but there isnt a way to trace a call, we've had prank calls before and contacted the phone company to give us the numbers to the pranksters but they said they couldnt trace it or something. But u can ask ur phone company about blocking private calls, and it will probably still let ur husbands company come in it might not be a blocked number just a different area code or something cuz my sisters number shows up private on our caller id but it still shows the number.

We have Privacy Manager on our phone so that when they call they have to announce who they are before you actually answer it. When the phone rings it will show up on caller id as privacy manager & when you pick up the phone it tells you who it is & then you have the option of hanging up, answering it, sending it to voicemail or asking them to remove your number. That way you don't have to necessarily block anyone. We have noticed that since we have that, they either quit calling or started calling from numbers that will show up. Good luck I know how frustrating this can be.

Unfortunately there are some scam artists out there that show up as "Private." Since they aren't legit, they couldn't care less about the "Do not call" registry. A very common one is a call identfying themselves as "cardmember services." I have tried - there is nothing you can do about them. You can't trace them. As for real telemarketer calls, the Do not Call registry should help, or as someone else mentioned get a privacy manager service on your phone.

you need to register w/ donotcall.gov .....i have all of our lines (including cells) listed and have no problems!!!

I'm so glad you asked this question! We've changed our number twice and still get calls for people that used to have our number! It's so bad that I have all of the ringers off! We both have cell phones so we are reachable in the event of an emergency.

We've already registered on donotcall.gov, it's not helping. Oh, and I've gone off on a few of these people and they hang up on me! One way to really tick me off is call my house when I'm trying to put my DS to bed. I get real bent!

I have the same problem and we are on the do not call list. Its not working. The best advice I have is to get Privacy Manager on your phone. Anytime the person calls they will have to say who they are with etc and then a recording tells you who it is and asks if you want to take the call, send to voicemail etc. But the downside of that is that your husband will always have to go through that too. I wish you luck because I know how you feel. I get like 3-4 calls a day wanting us to donate money or take surveys!

A.,
The privacy manager is probably the best thing out there however that comes with a cost as well. You have to know how to disable it if you're waiting for certain calls to come in. For example, my doctor's office and in the past, my kids pediatrician would not go through all that stuff they have to go through to get in touch with you so you would have to disable it when waiting for a call from them. These calls were the only drawbacks I had to the privacy manager.
Currently I have an answering machine and if it says unknown I let it go to the machine. If it's someone that is looking for me they either leave a message or when they start speaking, I can pick up the phone. Also if you set if for only 2 rings, the solicitors don't like that because the machine picks up and they loose 2 more rings for someone else in the que to pick up. Works for me.
C.

SUPER annoying.
www.donotcall.gov helped me with this problem. Telemarketers are NOT allowed to call our home line at all!

My business phone sometimes acts like your husband's work line though - shows up as private :)