How to Block Spam Calls on AT&T: ActiveArmor, Spam Risk Labels and Number Blocking

What AT&T already does without asking

AT&T's network-level protection, sold under the ActiveArmor name (it was called AT&T Call Protect until 2021), does two things for every wireless customer automatically. Calls AT&T identifies as fraud — spoofed numbers, known scam campaigns, traffic that fails caller-ID authentication in telling ways — are blocked before they reach your phone. Calls that look like telemarketing or nuisance traffic but are not clearly fraudulent are allowed through with a "Spam Risk" label on the incoming-call screen. You do not need the app for either of those; they are network features tied to your line.

The ActiveArmor app (iOS and Android) adds the controls. With it you can block nuisance-call categories, keep a personal block list, see why a call was labeled, and report spam. AT&T describes the current feature set on its security page. The app is free; a paid Advanced tier — included with some unlimited plans, otherwise a monthly add-on — layers on caller ID for unknown numbers, reverse number lookup, a public Wi-Fi VPN, safe browsing and identity-monitoring alerts.

If you have ever wondered why an AT&T phone shows "Spam Risk" while a friend's Verizon phone shows "Potential Spam" and a T-Mobile phone shows "Scam Likely" for the same caller: the three carriers use different analytics partners and different wording, but they are all doing the same thing — scoring the calling behavior behind the number. Our guide to what 'Spam Risk' means goes into how those scores are built and why they are sometimes wrong.

Set up ActiveArmor and block categories of calls

Install AT&T ActiveArmor from the App Store or Google Play and sign in with your AT&T user ID. On iPhone, also switch it on under Settings → Phone → Call Blocking & Identification so iOS lets the app label and block calls. Then, in the app:

• Check that Fraud Call Blocking and Spam Risk labeling are on (they should be by default).
• Open Nuisance Call Controls and decide what to do with each category AT&T recognizes — telemarketers, surveys, political calls, account-services calls and so on. Each can be allowed, sent to voicemail or blocked. Sending telemarketing to voicemail while allowing account-services calls (your bank, your utility) is a sensible starting point.
• Add anything persistent to your personal block list. Unlike AT&T's older account-level blocks, list entries in the app do not expire.
• Turn on Unknown Callers handling if you want every number not in your contacts sent to voicemail. It is aggressive but effective if the people who matter to you are already saved.

Blocked and labeled calls show up in the app's Call Log with the reason, so you can review what was caught and mark mistakes as "Not spam". Do the same in reverse for spam that got through: reporting from the app feeds AT&T's scoring, and it is the fastest way to get a new campaign labeled for everyone else on the network.

Block a specific number

For one number, the ActiveArmor personal block list is the network-level option: the call is stopped before your phone rings. The phone-level option works too — on iPhone tap the (i) next to the call and choose Block this Caller; on Android long-press the call in the Phone app and choose Block/report spam — and it is unlimited, but the caller may still land in voicemail on some devices.

Before adding a number, check it. A reverse lookup on this site shows the FTC Do Not Call and FCC complaint history for the number, the subject people report (debt relief, Medicare, impostor), whether it is a toll-free line, and whether its prefix is even assigned to a carrier. Persistent campaigns are obvious in the data — dozens or hundreds of complaints in the last 30 days — while a number with no history and a local prefix is more likely a real person who misdialed.

A note on texts: AT&T's spam protection is mostly about voice. For junk texts, forward the message to 7726 (it spells SPAM) — that reports it to AT&T's messaging filters at no charge — and then block the sender in Messages. Our "wrong number" text guide explains the most common text scam and why replying, even to say stop, makes it worse.

AT&T home phone

AT&T Phone — the digital (VoIP) home phone bundled with fiber and internet — supports call blocking through your myAT&T account: sign in, open the phone features, and you can turn on Anonymous Call Blocking, add numbers to a call-blocking list and enable AT&T's Digital Phone Call Protect, which labels and can block suspected spam on the home line. Because AT&T Phone is VoIP, it also qualifies for the free Nomorobo service, which uses simultaneous ring to hang up on known robocall numbers after one ring; you set it up at nomorobo.com and add its number as a simultaneous-ring destination in myAT&T.

Older AT&T copper landlines are limited to the traditional star codes — *60 to block a short list of numbers, *77 for Anonymous Call Rejection — and a hardware call blocker at the wall jack is often the better fix if robocalls are the main problem.

The calls no filter stops

Automatic fraud blocking is good at known campaigns and useless against brand-new numbers, because a number with no calling history has nothing to score. Robocall operations know this and rotate numbers in bulk; the FTC's Do Not Call complaint files we ingest show thousands of new numbers each week. Spoofed calls that borrow a legitimate business's number can carry a clean reputation for days. And calls you technically agreed to — the company you gave your number to at checkout, the political campaign you donated to — are not spam by the network's definition.

So combine the tools. Register on the National Do Not Call Registry so that legitimate telemarketers have to stop within 31 days; after that, any sales call is either unlawful or a scam. Report what still gets through at DoNotCall.gov (for unwanted sales calls) or ReportFraud.ftc.gov (for scams and losses) — the FTC publishes those complaints daily and they drive the complaint history on this site. And for any call claiming to be your bank, the IRS, Medicare or AT&T itself, hang up and call back on the number printed on your card, statement or bill. AT&T will never call to ask for your account passcode.

Sources

1. AT&T — ActiveArmor security
2. FCC — Call Blocking Tools and Resources
3. FTC — Report unwanted calls (DoNotCall.gov)

Related

• Block spam calls on Verizon
• Block spam calls on T-Mobile
• Block spam calls on Android
• What 'Spam Risk' means
• Toll-free number lookup

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