topic Re: Blocking numbers in Get Support

Blocking numbers

6500K — Wed, 05 Jan 2022 13:46:16 GMT

From the self serve page, is there a way to block a phone number from sending me a text or calling me? I know I can do it on my phone through the dialing app but I would like to be able to do it on the self serve page on a computer for convenience. Any help along these lines would be greatly appreciated.

Re: Blocking numbers

pmmobile — Sun, 29 Dec 2019 22:15:24 GMT

@6500K No, I don't believe you can do it through self-serve since there is no way to click on numbers, or an options tab to block numbers. You could try contact the moderators, by clicking the "?" on the bottom right of screen, to see if they can accomodate your request

Re: Blocking numbers

Staliger — Mon, 30 Dec 2019 04:39:21 GMT

@6500K wrote:
From the self serve page, is there a way to block a phone number from sending me a text or calling me? I know I can do it on my phone through the dialing app but I would like to be able to do it on the self serve page on a computer for convenience. Any help along these lines would be greatly appreciated.

As it is known - no. You can ask for moderator's help: click the "?" in lower right side of the page, type "contact moderator", and follow directions.

Re: Blocking numbers

computergeek541 — Tue, 31 Dec 2019 06:29:26 GMT

@Staliger wrote:
@6500K wrote:
From the self serve page, is there a way to block a phone number from sending me a text or calling me? I know I can do it on my phone through the dialing app but I would like to be able to do it on the self serve page on a computer for convenience. Any help along these lines would be greatly appreciated.
As it is known - no. You can ask for moderator's help: click the "?" in lower right side of the page, type "contact moderator", and follow directions.

There's no need to contact the moderators. Public Mobile does not provide any method of blocking phone numbers at the account level.

Any blocking must be done at the customer's device end.

Re: Blocking numbers

Nezgar — Tue, 31 Dec 2019 18:41:18 GMT

Also keep in mind that blocking phone calls on the device merely automatically 'declines' calls as far as the network sees. This triggers the "Busy/Declined" conditional forward, which by default is set to your voicemail. So your nuicanse caller may still be able to annoy you by leaving junk voice messages.

To prevent this, set the "Busy/Declined" conditional forward to a dead-end number. Set a US number for a fast busy/immediate disconnect (since any US number is invalid for forwarding, but can still be configured), or some other entertaining number of your choice.

ie: *67*18085872220# for the hawaii dept of transportation's fax line. (Again, it doesn't actually ever call it)

More entertaining options can be found in a prior post of mine: https://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/Discussions/Fun-with-Conditional-Call-forwarding-and-reduce-SPAM-calls-while/m-p/452207/highlight/true#M100652

Reset it back to default voicemail with: ##67# or ##004#

Re: Blocking numbers

6500K — Tue, 31 Dec 2019 20:44:03 GMT

@Nezgar Thanks for the detailed explanation and suggestions. If I could, I would give you two bravos!

Re: Blocking numbers

pmmobile — Tue, 31 Dec 2019 23:14:08 GMT

@Nezgar wrote:
Also keep in mind that blocking phone calls on the device merely automatically 'declines' calls as far as the network sees. This triggers the "Busy/Declined" conditional forward, which by default is set to your voicemail. So your nuicanse caller may still be able to annoy you by leaving junk voice messages.

To prevent this, set the "Busy/Declined" conditional forward to a dead-end number. Set a US number for a fast busy/immediate disconnect (since any US number is invalid for forwarding, but can still be configured), or some other entertaining number of your choice.

ie: *67*18085872220# for the hawaii dept of transportation's fax line. (Again, it doesn't actually ever call it)
More entertaining options can be found in a prior post of mine: https://productioncommunity.publicmobile.ca/t5/Discussions/Fun-with-Conditional-Call-forwarding-and-reduce-SPAM-calls-while/m-p/452207/highlight/true#M100652

Reset it back to default voicemail with: ##67# or ##004#

@6500K @NezgarDoes the following seem correct:

In the above method, when you see the call coming in you "decline" the call and it gets 'routed' to the US number, which will then terminate the call. If you block the person on your phone this process is automatic.

I believe the only issue with this method is that when a caller would not normally receive a 'busy signal beep' when calling you (eg. you're calling out, your phone is ringing), will also call forward to the US number.

Although rare, this could also affect important calls that you want to receive.. from potential employers (who may not call again) etc, use your imagination~ hope this helps!

Re: Blocking numbers

Nezgar — Wed, 01 Jan 2020 04:21:39 GMT

@pmmobile wrote:
@6500K @NezgarDoes the following seem correct:
In the above method, when you see the call coming in you "decline" the call and it gets 'routed' to the US number, which will then terminate the call. If you block the person on your phone this process is automatic.

Correct. When I see a spam caller, I can choose to manually decline a call on a per-call basis, without them going to my voicemail.

I believe the only issue with this method is that when a caller would not normally receive a 'busy signal beep' when calling you (eg. you're calling out, your phone is ringing), will also call forward to the US number.

Yes, in this rare case, a caller would also get routed to the fast-busy signal.

Although rare, this could also affect important calls that you want to receive.. from potential employers (who may not call again) etc, use your imagination~ hope this helps!

I think a fast busy is more likely to ilicit a human to try again, compared to them getting a system recorded message.

The thing is, a busy signal is the normal expected behavior of a 'busy' line when there is no voicemail subscription. Because Public Mobile includes voicemail service by default, the normal methods to 'clear' conditional forwards (##004#, ##61#, ##62#, ##67#) reset back to the voicemail # instead of actually disabling/deprovisioning them. By setting the forward to a US number, it makes it play the busy tone which is the closest we can get to "disabling" it.

(I'm still searching for a forwarding number that plays a true busy signal, instead of the fast-busy signal...)