How to set Phone Reject List to help stop the “One Ring” phone scam

There is a new phone scam going around. It goes like this:

Your phone rings once because the caller hung-up. If you call the number back, you’ll be charged $20 for the call, and $9 per minute.

Wow! People are getting so innovative nowadays. They are predicating on the fact that people are naturally curious and will call the number back. I never call these numbers back because I assume it’s a sales call anyway. But I decided to program my phone to block these numbers, so they will never ring in the first place. It’s really easy to add these to your phone.

Each phone may be slightly different, but on the Samsung Galaxy Note 2 and S3, they were in the same location. This is something that I’ve been using on my phone for a couple of years now. It helps that I can add those pesky sales calls phone numbers. Follow along in the video, or in the steps below.

1. Click on the phone dialer icon, then click on “Menu” and “Call Settings”
2. Select “Call Rejection” and make sure Auto Reject Mode is on.
3. Select Auto Reject List and click on the “+” icon.

Now you have a choice. You can add a phone number to block, but with this scam, I’m going to block the entire prefix. Actually, I’ll block several prefixes, namely, 473, 809, 876, 284 and 268.

4. Enter “268” in the number field.
5. THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT. Then set “Match criteria” to “Starts With” and click on Save.

This tells the phone to reject any phone number that starts with “268”. Rinse and repeat with the other prefixes you wish to reject.

NOTE: I have no idea how to reject certain area codes on an iPhone.