Call catcher
Well its like this. If you want a job or project done you really have be prepared to use your brain and work it out for yourself. So like everybody else I get a number of problem spam calls. They are just a pain in the behind. I live in the UK and most of them seem to originate from abroad when I was young and knew nothing better I was scammed out of 5k. These things happen and why should I be any different.
Having calls diverted to your answerphone if the caller is unknown is nothing special but there is always that call maybe from a hospital or family member in difficulty calling from a random number who genuinely needs to contact you. Well I could not find an app that did what I wanted so I wrote one (An android app) and I object to lining the pockets of others should I wish to provide my app for free, but thats how things work. Or the standard business model running these days, a subscription model. So my offering is totally free. Obviously use at your own risk and don’t be surprised if when you install it warnings come up from your anti virus. This is only because it needs to read your contact list (Phone book) and its not provided via the expensive app store. It works like this open the program there is a button on/off. If on it works like this.
Known caller calls, rings as normal, answer call happy days.
Unknown caller calls, rings maybe once but normally does not even ring and goes to carrier answerphone.
Unknown caller rings a second time within 5 minutes rings as normal, answer call happy days.
The answerphone message you set on your carriers system, something to the effect of “Please don’t hang up. You have been transferred to the spam call answerphone as the system does not know the number you are calling from. If I am expecting a call from your number or if your call is important, hang up now and call back directly and your call will be put through. Alternatively leave a message after the tone.
So numbers you know family/friends etc everything is normal. Spam call/unknown number straight to answerphone. The safety bit, say its a son or daughter in need of help calling from a friends number. They call back within 5 minutes and the call goes through as normal the second time.
The spam caller, normally a call centre controlled by a computer. They give up straight away as a rule if a number answers without even ringing.
Now the systems operation relies on a few things
1, if you decline a call when you get a normal call your carrier redirects the call to your answerphone. If your answerphone is turned on and set say to 10 seconds, most do but before wasting time installing it test this first. Often to turn on your answerphone and set to 6 rings (10 seconds) you need to find codes *99*55*88*30# or similar. A google search will normally find the correct codes, I think they call them star codes where you can turn on / off answerphone and set a time it rings before it answers.
2, Your answerphone message should be short and straight to the point ie ‘please don’t hang up….
Now the way to install it is to download the .apk installer below, you should find it in your downloads folder on your mobile, run it (click it) ignore the warnings it gives if your antivirus speaks up.
You need to set the permissions click system / apps / all apps or similar to find the app call interceptor and set permissions to allow access to your phone book.
You need to set settings / apps and notifications / default apps / caller id and spam app to call interceptor.
Now there are times when you might want to turn it off. For example I volunteer for a charity giving the elderly lifts to and from the hospital. Sometimes they call me directly when they want picking up and when I am expecting one of these calls maybe from a random unknown number it is better to have it turned off so if you open the app there is a simple on / off toggle.
Just to be clear, I have only tested this using tesco mobile (o2 i think) and an android Shark6 mobile phone. The whole thing works from the mobile phone. No subscriptions and it can be removed by just holding the button for the app on the main mobile screen / remove app. The app collects no information other than the number of the last call and this stays on your mobile phone and nowhere else other than where your normal operator might store it as any other number you may backup may be stored by others.
Download app here.
Download potential answerphone outgoing message here.