Will this actually stop
the calls to my mother?

PhoneShield is a call-screening service you forward a phone to. Known scammers are refused before the phone rings, family and favorites ring straight through, and an AI front desk asks everyone else who they are and what they want. It is built for protecting a parent or another family member from phone scams, with every call and message visible to the family. The same shield works for anyone you answer for: a spouse, your kids, clients in your care as a caregiver, fiduciary or trustee, or your own line.

Forward their phone to a PhoneShield number using one code from their carrier. From then on, numbers on the shared scam list and in the FTC's daily complaint data are refused before their phone rings, people in their favorites ring through as before, and every other caller has to explain themselves to a front desk first. Nothing is installed on their phone, their number does not change, and you can see every call from your own phone.

Yes, with one catch for landlines. PhoneShield works by call forwarding, which every carrier and most landline providers support, so any phone can be screened. Calls that pass the front desk ring the PhoneShield app on an iPhone (the parent's own or a family member's) or a second number you choose. A forwarded landline cannot ring for those calls itself, because its calls now go to PhoneShield. So a landline works best when the parent also has a mobile phone, or when a family member's app takes the calls that pass.

Those tools label or block numbers they have seen before, on that one phone. Scam call centers rotate numbers faster than any list can follow. PhoneShield refuses known numbers too, but every unknown caller then has to state their business to a front desk before the phone rings, so a brand-new number with an old script is stopped by what it says, not by whether anyone has seen the number before. And the family, not only the parent, sees every call and every message.

The free screeners on newer iPhones and Pixel phones ask unknown callers for a name and a reason, then show the answer to the person holding the phone, who decides. Scammers answer that easily. Callers our front desk turned away in our pilot said things like "James, underwriting, your $5,000 loan closes today" and "an alert regarding your past due taxes." A built-in screener puts those in front of your parent to judge. PhoneShield judges them for her: scam pitches are declined, known scam numbers are refused before the phone rings, and what one family's line learns protects every line. It also works on any phone that can forward calls, including landlines and older phones, and the family sees every call. If you screen your own calls and are comfortable judging them, the built-in screener is a fine free start.

They are mostly caller ID and spam apps for the phone they are installed on: they label numbers they have seen before, and some answer suspected spam with an assistant that sends you a transcript. YouMail can ask callers to press a key, which stops robots but not people. PhoneShield is a front desk for a phone a family looks after. It judges what each caller actually says, hands real callers to Nora, a live assistant who answers questions and takes a proper message, and shows the family every call. It works on landlines. Your contacts are used only to build your own favorites list: no address-book harvesting and no ads.

Because it does a different job. A spam app labels numbers on your own phone; PhoneShield answers your parent's line for the family, judges every stranger, refuses known scam numbers, and gives real callers a live assistant. It is $29.99 a month for one line, $299 a year, and $19.99 a month for each further line, so both parents cost less than two separate plans. Americans over 60 lost $7.75 billion to fraud in 2025 (FBI IC3); a single scam call that never reaches your parent can be worth far more than a year of PhoneShield.

Cloaked is a privacy suite for protecting yourself, and its call screener protects your existing number by call forwarding, much as we do. The difference is whose phone. Cloaked's own setup guide says its app must be on the phone being protected and that it cannot protect another person's number, and it needs a mobile phone, so a landline is not covered. PhoneShield is run by the family for a parent's line, and a forwarded landline can be screened too, with the calls that pass ringing her mobile or the family's app. The assistants differ too. Cloaked's materials describe its assistant as screening a call and sending you a transcript; they do not describe a two-way conversation. Nora, PhoneShield's live assistant, is full duplex: she listens while she speaks, like a person on the phone, so callers can interrupt her, she answers questions from what the family told her, and she takes a proper message. Our Academy has a full side-by-side comparison.

It is rare, and the system keeps improving, but some real calls sound exactly like scams: a bank confirming a transfer, a pharmacy about a prescription. So there are safeguards. A scam verdict on one family's line affects only that line until other signals confirm it. Saving a number as a contact or favorite, or marking that you are expecting a call, lets it straight through. Every turned-away call shows its reason in your call history, and callers who are not put through can leave a message.

Only before a call reaches you, never once you are talking. The front desk listens to what a caller says about who they are and why they are calling, and Nora listens when she answers a question or takes a message; callers hear a notice first. The moment a call rings you, PhoneShield steps out: nothing you and the caller say is transcribed, analyzed or kept, and no AI is on the line. We never store audio of any call. What we keep is the written transcript of what callers told the front desk or Nora, so you can see why a call was let through or turned away.

Yes, on iPhone. Choose PhoneShield as your text filter (Settings, Apps, Messages, Text Message Filter) and texts from numbers you don't know are sorted as they arrive: scams, political texts and out-of-the-blue strangers go to Spam without a notification, marketing to Promotions, and codes and reminders to Transactions. Texts from your contacts never reach us, and we keep none of the texts we check. It is part of your plan. On Android, the app will warn about scam texts in a later version.

Subscribe from the pricing page: $29.99 a month for one line, with 150 Nora minutes included and your PhoneShield number assigned at checkout. Install the PhoneShield iPhone app and sign in, so vetted calls ring it, then forward your number to your PhoneShield number. A test call confirms forwarding works before you rely on it. Cancel any time from the billing page.

$29.99 a month covers one line: your PhoneShield number, scam calls refused before they ring, a front desk that screens everyone else, messages, calls that ring you, and 150 minutes a month of Nora, the assistant. There is no monthly minimum and no per-minute charge for screening.

Only Nora’s talk time. The first 150 assistant minutes each month are included; after that, each minute is $0.12. Scam refusals, front-desk screening, messages and calls that ring you are unlimited and not metered. Once Nora connects a caller to you, the rest of that call is not metered either. At 300 assistant minutes you pay $47.99; at 900, $119.99.

Prices are in USD before taxes. International and toll-free calls, extra numbers, SMS, custom tools, premium model upgrades and custom integrations are outside the plan and need a separate quote. Your current carrier may charge for forwarding.

Yes. Each further line is $19.99 a month ($199 a year on a yearly plan) on the same bill. From your Billing page, send an invite by email; they accept with their own account and get their own PhoneShield number, call history and app sign-in, each with 150 Nora minutes a month. Remove a line any time; billing is prorated.

Yes. Keep your current number and forward it to your PhoneShield number. Vetted calls then ring you in the PhoneShield iPhone app, like any phone call. No second line, no new SIM. Without an iPhone, they can ring a second number you choose instead.

No trial, no tiers, no contract. One plan, monthly or yearly (two months free), plus a lower price for each further line: you subscribe, we assign your number, and you can cancel any time from the billing page. The setup checks itself: a test call confirms forwarding works before you rely on it.

Calendar booking and a human backup team are not included. Notifications by Telegram, email, Slack or webhook are, and Nora can connect a caller to you. Tell us which workflows you need so we can assess them before you commit.

Calls that pass the front desk ring the PhoneShield iPhone app, like any phone call, with the caller's name on screen. Install it on the iPhone that should ring: the parent's own, or a family member's. Without an iPhone, vetted calls can ring a second number instead. Settings, call history and messages are also on the website, from any computer or phone. Call forwarding is turned on once, on the protected phone itself.

No screening service can guarantee that every scam or unwanted call will be identified. Numbers on the shared block list, built from confirmed scam verdicts, customer reports and FTC complaints, are refused before your phone rings. Everyone else explains themselves to the front desk, and your mode (Open, Do not disturb, or Receptionist) decides whether they ring you, meet Nora, or leave a message.

PhoneShield Academy includes guides for your first call, forwarding, Nora, notifications, messages and screening.