Everything you need to shield a parent’s phone.
Plain guides to stopping scam calls, setting PhoneShield up for a parent, and making it work your way.
Potential Spam: what it means and how to stop the calls
Verizon's Potential Spam, Robo Caller and Potential Fraud labels, the Verizon Protect spam filter step by step, T-Mobile's Potential Spam, iPhone and Android
Browse by topic
Scam and spam calls
Stopping scam and spam calls on any phone, and the scams aimed at older parents
17 guides
Comparisons
PhoneShield next to the apps and services families weigh it against
4 guides
Setting up
Forwarding, the app, the text filter and the assistant
6 guides
Using PhoneShield
Modes, messages, favorites, and how scam calls are caught
5 guides
Alerts and integrations
Messages by email, Telegram, Slack or your own endpoint
4 guides
For businesses
PhoneShield on a business line and for a small team
4 guides
Why the phone is where fraud starts.
$7.75 billion lost by Americans over 60 in 2025, up 59% in one year. One in five complaints, more than a third of the money.
The numbers with their sources, why the agencies cannot stop it, and the one place a call can still be stopped.
Read the scam protection page40 guides, latest first.
October 2026 19
- Scam and spam calls
Potential Spam: what it means and how to stop the calls
Verizon's Potential Spam, Robo Caller and Potential Fraud labels, the Verizon Protect spam filter step by step, T-Mobile's Potential Spam, iPhone and Android
- Scam and spam calls
Spam Risk: what AT&T's warning means
AT&T's Spam Risk and Fraud Risk labels, the categories behind them, and how to block or silence these calls in ActiveArmor, on iPhone and on Android
- Comparisons
Spam call blocker apps compared
Truecaller, Hiya, RoboKiller, Nomorobo and the free options: prices, strengths, limits, and who needs which
- Scam and spam calls
Scam calls on a landline
Free codes, spam labels, Nomorobo, call-blocker phones and how to screen a parent's home phone
- Scam and spam calls
How to block spam calls on Android
Spam filtering in Google's and Samsung's Phone apps, blocking numbers, hidden callers and Call Screen
- Scam and spam calls
How to block a phone number on iPhone, Android or a landline
Block a number on iPhone, Android or a landline, block unknown callers, and unblock a number
- Scam and spam calls
Block unknown callers and your phone becomes a walkie-talkie
What blocking strangers costs, who gets cut off, why scammers get through anyway, and how a front desk keeps the phone open
- Scam and spam calls
How to stop spam calls on iPhone
The two iOS 27 settings that stop most spam calls, then blocking a number, call blocking apps and scam texts
- Scam and spam calls
Who called me? How to find out who is behind an unknown number
Free ways to identify an unknown number, what reverse phone lookup sites and caller ID apps really show
- Scam and spam calls
How to stop unknown calls on iPhone
Silence unknown callers or have them screened, where the old switch went, and the real calls you could miss
- Scam and spam calls
Call screener for iPhone: Apple's Call Screening explained
How the iPhone's built-in call screening works, how to turn it on, where it falls short, and what a screening service adds
- Scam and spam calls
No Caller ID calls: how to block them
What No Caller ID, Private and Restricted mean, how to block them, and the honest answer on finding out who called
- Scam and spam calls
Scam Likely calls: what the label means
Why real callers get the label too, who is behind the number, and how to stop these calls on T-Mobile, AT&T, Verizon, iPhone and Android
- Scam and spam calls
How to stop scam calls to an elderly parent
The scams aimed at older people, the talk to have, free steps first, and what to do if money already went
- Scam and spam calls
How to stop and block spam calls: what actually works
How to block and prevent spam calls: your carrier's free blocking, iPhone and Android settings, the Do Not Call Registry and how to report calls
- Setting up
Filter scam texts on iPhone
Choose PhoneShield as your text filter: scams, political texts and strangers go to Spam, codes to Transactions
- Comparisons
PhoneShield vs Hiya: protection for your phone, or a front desk for Mom’s
Hiya is a strong, inexpensive spam blocker for your own smartphone. PhoneShield is a front desk a family runs for someone else’s line, landlines included
- Comparisons
Is Cloaked legit? PhoneShield vs Cloaked for a parent's phone
What Cloaked is and what its customers say, then why its call screening only protects the phone it is installed on
- Setting up
No call forwarding in iPhone Settings? Verizon
Verizon, Visible, Xfinity and Spectrum iPhones have no switch. The *72 code, and what to do when Verizon refuses it
September 2026 3
- Scam and spam calls
The asymmetric war: why the government is losing to scammers
Fifty billion robocalls, record losses, a $100 front door and a 2003 web form. The four-minute film and the numbers behind it
- Setting up
No iPhone? A second line for vetted calls
Vetted calls normally ring the PhoneShield app. Without an iPhone, a cheap eSIM or second phone works instead
- Comparisons
PhoneShield vs Bland and other AI phone agents
Bland, Retell and Vapi are platforms for building a phone agent; PhoneShield is a ready-made front desk. What each costs at your call volume
April 2025 18
- Scam and spam calls
Common phone scams and how to avoid them
The most common phone scams, their warning signs, and how to report them
- Setting up
PhoneShield quickstart guide
Set up your account and start handling calls in under 15 minutes
- Setting up
Setting up call forwarding
How to forward your existing number to PhoneShield, on every major carrier
- Setting up
Customizing your assistant
Name your assistant, pick the Marin or Cedar voice, and give her instructions, knowledge and conditional responses
- Using PhoneShield
Understanding call screening
Open, Do not disturb and Receptionist: what happens to a call in each mode
- Using PhoneShield
Messages: what your assistant and front desk collect
The Messages feed, callbacks, the done state, and where messages are delivered
- Using PhoneShield
Favorites: callers who ring you straight through
The people who skip the front desk and ring you with their name on the screen
- Using PhoneShield
How PhoneShield identifies scams
The front desk, the intent classifier, confident-verdict blocking and the FTC complaint signal
- Using PhoneShield
How the shared block list works
Confident verdicts, customer reports, FTC complaints, and the Allow-for-me override
- Alerts and integrations
Email notifications setup
Get every message and assistant call delivered to your inbox
- Alerts and integrations
Telegram integration guide
Get messages and assistant calls delivered to a Telegram chat or group
- Alerts and integrations
Webhook integration for developers
The real payload, when it fires, and a working receiver
- Alerts and integrations
Slack and webhook delivery
Post every message to a Slack channel or send it to your own endpoint
- For businesses
PhoneShield for small businesses
One number, Nora as receptionist, messages delivered to the team, and analytics per day
- For businesses
One number, one line: how PhoneShield fits a small team
One number per account today, Nora taking messages, and Slack or webhook delivery for the team
- For businesses
How AI call screening works for a small business
What changes when a front desk answers the numbers you do not recognize, where that helps a business, and where it falls short
- Scam and spam calls
A practical guide to defeating phone scammers
The scripts that still work, including cloned voices and fake bank calls, and the habits and screening that beat them
- For businesses
Phone management strategies for small businesses
Customers, suppliers, robocalls and the odd scammer on one number: plain ways to sort them without hiring a receptionist