Should you answer calls from unknown numbers?

You listed a couch on Marketplace. You put your number on a flyer for weekend yard work. You have a unit for rent. Now your phone rings from a number you don’t know.

It could be the buyer. It could be a new customer, or a tenant calling from a work phone. Or it could be one of the billions of robocalls Americans get every month. The call-blocking company YouMail estimates nearly 3.9 billion robocalls in September 2026 alone, and puts 46% of them down to telemarketing or scams (YouMail).

If you have no side business, the answer is easy: let unknown numbers go. If an unknown number might be your next job, it’s harder. So should you answer calls from unknown numbers? Here’s how to screen them without missing the real ones.

What your phone can already do

Before you buy anything, check the settings you already have. Each one helps, and each has a trade-off.

On iPhone: screen or silence unknown callers. In the Phone settings, under unknown callers, you can choose:

• Ask Reason for Calling. Call Screening answers calls from unknown numbers for you. After the caller gives their name and reason, your iPhone rings and shows what they said, so you can decide whether to pick up (Apple).
• Silence. Calls from unsaved numbers are silenced, sent to voicemail and listed in Recents (Apple).

There’s also a spam filter: calls your carrier identifies as potential spam or fraud are silenced, sent to voicemail and moved to a Spam list (Apple).

On iPhone: Live Voicemail. It shows a real-time transcription while someone leaves a message, and you can pick up while they’re still talking. With Silence turned on, unknown numbers go straight to Live Voicemail without ringing first. It isn’t available in every country, region or language (Apple).

On Pixel phones: Call Screen. It lets you find out who’s calling and why before you pick up. Call Assist answers, asks who’s calling and why, and you can read the conversation as it happens. In the US, Pixel phones can screen calls automatically; manual screening also works on selected other Android phones. Saved contacts aren’t screened (Phone app Help).

Through your carrier, or an app. Phone companies offer call-blocking and call-labeling services. Some are free and some charge a fee, and there are call-blocking apps too (FTC).

The trade-offs. None of these is perfect:

• The FTC warns that call-blocking services might block some calls you want to get (FTC).
• Pixel’s help page says not all spam calls and robocalls can be detected, and Call Screen won’t always understand what a caller said (Phone app Help).
• Silence sends every unsaved number to voicemail, including the new customer. Some people hang up rather than leave a message, and then you only have a number in your call log.
• Screening works best on the phone it’s set up on. If you’re under a sink or behind the wheel, you still have to look at the screen.

A simple rule set for unknown numbers

You don’t need to pick up everything or ignore everything. Decide in advance.

1. Expecting someone? Pick up. If you posted a listing this morning or quoted a job yesterday, an unknown local number is probably them.
2. Save every real customer. Once a number is a real customer or tenant, save it as a contact. Saved numbers skip the unknown-caller settings above.
3. Screen the rest. Let a screening feature or an assistant ask who’s calling. A real customer will usually say. A robocall usually won’t.
4. Treat voicemail as a filter, not a black hole. Check it often enough that a real message doesn’t sit there for a day.
5. Call back on your terms. If a message says it’s your bank, a delivery company or an agency, call back on a number you find yourself, like the one on your statement, never the number the caller gave you (FTC).
6. Block the repeat offenders. Many phones let you block a specific number (FTC).

Red flags: hang up when you hear these

From the FTC’s advice on phone scams (FTC):

• Pay this way, now. Only scammers demand payment by wire transfer, gift card, cryptocurrency or payment app.
• Decide right now. Most honest businesses give you time to think it over.
• You won a prize, just pay the fee. If you have to pay to get it, it’s not a prize.
• Press 1 to talk to someone. Don’t press any numbers on a robocall. It may lead to more calls.
• The name on your screen looks official. Scammers can make any name or number show up on caller ID.

Two more that hit people who sell things or advertise a number:

• “Read me the code we just sent you.” The FTC is blunt: anyone who asks you for your account verification code is a scammer. Don’t engage. Hang up and block the number (FTC). On selling sites, a scammer posing as a buyer may say they want to check you’re a real person, then ask for a code they texted you. Don’t share any verification code with someone you don’t know (FTC).
• “I’ll send a check for more than the price.” Never deposit a check for more than the selling price, and don’t accept a mobile payment from someone you don’t know (FTC).

If you lose money, report it at ReportFraud.ftc.gov (FTC).

Where an assistant fits

The phone’s own tools ask “who is this?” and then hand the decision back to you, on that phone, right then. That’s fine at home on the couch. It’s harder on a ladder.

An AI assistant on a separate work number takes the whole call. It asks who’s calling and what they need, takes the details down, and you read a summary when your hands are free. The trade-offs are real too: some callers don’t want to talk to an assistant, and software can misread a call.

Where Redtie fits

Redtie is a work phone line with an AI assistant built in. Here’s what it does for unknown callers today, and what it doesn’t.

• You choose when the assistant answers, line by line: every call (“Always”), or only when you don’t pick up (“After no answer”).
• It asks who’s calling and what they need, and reads the callback number back to check it.
• Spam is labelled, and you’re not pinged about it. When the assistant judges a call to be spam, it’s marked Spam in your Activity, and you don’t get an email or text about it.
• Real callers get a summary by email, or a text with a link if you opt in. The full summary and transcript are one tap away.
• Watch and step in. In the Redtie desktop app on Mac or Windows, you can follow the assistant’s call as live captions and click “I’ll take it” to take the call over.
• Live captions on your own calls, so you can read what the caller says.
• Block a number from its call details. A blocked number is rejected before it rings.
• Abusive callers get one warning. If a caller keeps insulting or harassing the assistant, it warns them once and then ends the call. A threat ends it at once.
• A 7-day free trial when you sign up on the web.

What it isn’t:

• It doesn’t catch every unwanted call. Some spam will sound like a customer, and a real call marked as spam won’t get a summary. Glance at your Activity now and then.
• It’s for calls. Redtie can text you the summaries if you opt in; it doesn’t text your customers.
• It may not support 911 or other emergency calls (terms). Keep your regular phone for emergencies.

Start with your next unknown call

Set up what your phone already has, and save your real customers as contacts. If you still miss work because you can’t stop and screen, put something in front of the phone that answers for you.

See how Redtie works as a second phone number for gig workers, or read what to look for in a second number for a side hustle.