VoIP call screening

Are any of the VoIP services better a screening spam calls with faked caller id numbers? We are getting deluged with "You've been charged £95 for Amazon Prime" calls on our Zen landline; they all have faked caller id's usually for the same exchange as our number, but sometimes mobile numbers.

I haven’t really gotten any spam calls on our Sipgate numbers (ported and native).

At one point spam calls and texts on mobile was problematic, but has died down to zero since Vodafone etc got their [censored] into gear and filtered it properly.

YMMV.

Were any of the numbers ported to Sipgate getting spam calls before they were ported? What I'd like to know is if porting to VoIP results in a reduction of the Spamazon calls.

It was some years ago that porting took place, but yes there were spam calls before porting. Not excessive though.

Having recently ported our number from BT copper landline to GoTrunk VoIP I think VoIP providers do seem to be authenticating incoming CallerID properly when compared to BT.

We used to get one or two calls a week on the landline which the BT Call Guardian would filter due to them not wanting to leave identifying messages. Since moving our number to GoTrunk six weeks ago there has not been one single call from a fake number. If any attempts have been made then GoTrunk have filtered or rejected them before transferring them to our PBX. This is with the exact same number - the only change is copper ATA is now VoIP.

While I do miss the Call Guardian Announce function in the BT handset, I have managed to replicate the majority of it with some simple rules for Inbound Routes to the PBX. VIP callers ring through at all times and only get voicemail if I am unavailable. Local calls and mobiles ring except during the out of hours time when they get voicemail instead. National and International calls get voicemail all the time. If GoTrunk continue to be this good at filtering the fake IDs then I will relax the rule for National calls too.

To minimise spam calls I have my phone number ask the caller to press a certain digit to confirm they are not a cold caller or spam caller.

One way I implemented this is with two phone numbers, one of which was a normal 01/02 number which I'd expect the calls to come in on and other was an 03 number which I've never had spam calls on. The 01/02 number has something equivalent to an 'auto assistant' configured on it, which plays an automated message that asks the user to press a specific digit (e.g. 5). If they press 5 then they will be redirected to the 03 number and subsequently my phone then actually rings.

Alternatively I believe certain PBX software can do call screening/call whispering. For example, FreePBX/Asterisk.

The latest version of the Fritzbox router software includes the ability to whitelist phone numbers. Ie you can only call me if you are in my contacts list, otherwise caller gets sent to voicemail.