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- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Apple is taking a new step to combat spam calls in iOS 13. Today, you can already install third-party spam call screeners on your iPhone, but if that's not good enough (or something you don't want to do), iOS 13 will add a new solution this fall: it will be able to automatically silence any calls coming in from an unknown number. Even better, it'll automatically send them to voicemail.
The new "silence unknown callers" option can be toggled on or off based on your preference, but I'm thinking most people will enable it right after updating and leave it that way. The feature is explained on this page of what's new in iOS 13.
Spam prevention is, and always be, an arms race. This capability will slow down the callers for a few weeks, and then they'll pay for the linked lists that show the phone numbers of your children, barber, mechanic, minister or Rabbi, etc., etc.
The solution to spam calls is the same one I've advocated for years: answer the call, and do everything you can to waste the time of a real human. Everything else is just talk, but the warm bodies have to be paid with real money, and if even a small percentage of victims fought back, the industry would be out of business inside a year.
Bill Horne Moderator