Blocked Numbers

What it is

Blocked Numbers is your company’s do-not-accept list. As the page itself says: “Block phone numbers from calling or texting. Blocked numbers will be rejected on inbound.”

Once a number is on the list:

• Calls are rejected. The caller does not ring your team, and the attempt is still saved in Calls with a status of Blocked so you have a record.
• Texts are dropped silently. A text from a blocked number never appears in Conversations and the sender gets no reply.

The page also does the blocking for you in two ways: an Auto-Block Suspicious Carriersswitch, and Auto Spam Detection rules that watch calling patterns.

What’s on the page, top to bottom

When to use it

• A spam caller keeps tying up your line. Block the one number in about ten seconds.
• An abusive or harassing caller. Block the number and write the reason so the rest of the team understands later.
• A robocall wave hits. Turn on Auto-Block Suspicious Carriers and add an Auto Spam Detection rule instead of blocking numbers one at a time.
• You are moving from another phone system or answering service. Paste your existing list into Bulk Import.
• A real customer got blocked by mistake. Search for the number and unblock it.
• You want proof the filtering is working. Run Check Call History and see the volume you turned away.

Do not use this page to stop your own team from dialing someone. It only affects calls and texts coming in to your company.

Before you start

• You must be an Admin. Blocked Numbers is an admin-only page. If your account is not an admin, opening it sends you straight back to the Dashboard.
• Have the number handy. Any common format works — 5551234567, 555-123-4567 or +15551234567. Joby converts them all to the same standard form before saving, so you cannot accidentally save the same number twice in two formats.
• Decide on your reason wording first. The Reason box is optional, but it is the only thing that explains a block to whoever reads the list next month. Agree on short standard phrases with your team (for example spam, abusive caller, duplicate fraud lead).
• For a bulk import, get your numbers into one block of text. One reason applies to the whole batch, so split different reasons into separate imports.
• Know the cost of the carrier switch. Auto-Block Suspicious Carriers looks up who each inbound caller’s phone company is. Those lookups are billable and show up as Carrier Lookups on your Billing page. Leave the switch off if you do not want that charge.

Step-by-step

Block one number

1. Go to Settings›Channels›Blocked Numbers.
2. In the Add Single Number card, type the number into the Phone number box.
3. Optionally type a short explanation in the Reason (optional) box.
4. Click Block Number.

A confirmation message appears and the number jumps to the top of the Blocked Numbers list below. If the number is already blocked you will see “This number is already blocked” instead — nothing is duplicated.

Block many numbers at once

1. Paste your numbers into the big box in the Bulk Import card. You can separate them with new lines, commas or spaces — all three work.
2. Type one explanation into Reason for all (optional). It is applied to every number in the batch.
3. The button counts what it found — it reads Import 412 Numbers, for example. Check that count before clicking. If it looks too low, some lines were not recognised as phone numbers.
4. Click the button.

Numbers already on your list are skipped rather than duplicated, so it is safe to re-import a list you have partly added before.

Unblock a number (or a whole batch)

1. One number: find it in the Blocked Numbers list using the Search numbers… box, then click the red trash icon at the end of its row. It is removed immediately — there is no confirmation prompt.
2. Many numbers: paste them into the Bulk Remove card and click the red Remove … Numbers button.

The message that follows tells you how many were actually removed. If that count is lower than what you pasted, some of those numbers were not on the list to begin with.

Turn on Auto-Block Suspicious Carriers

1. At the top of the page, find the Auto-Block Suspicious Carriers row.
2. Click the switch to turn it on.

From then on, when a call arrives through one of the phone companies Joby flags as a known spam source (Onvoy and Sinch), the call is rejected and the number is added to your Blocked Numbers list on its own. Those entries show a reason beginning with Auto-blocked: Suspicious carrier. Business phone services that real customers call from are never auto-blocked, even when their line is routed through Sinch: RingCentral, Vonage and Google Voice numbers always ring through (you can still block any of them manually).

Set up Auto Spam Detection rules

1. In the Auto Spam Detection card, click Add Rule.
2. Give the rule a Rule Name your team will recognise, such as “High Frequency Callers”.
3. Choose a Rule Type:
   • Frequency Based — blocks a number that calls more than your chosen number of times inside a time window.
   • Status Pattern — blocks a number only when those calls all ended a certain way. After choosing this you get a Call Status dropdown with No Answer, Busy, Canceled and Failed.
4. Set Call Count Threshold (how many calls) and Time Window (minutes) (over what period).
5. Click Create Rule.
6. Click Run Now to apply your rules to recent call activity. The message tells you how many numbers were blocked, or that no spam patterns were detected.

Each saved rule appears as its own row with an on/off switch, a running … blocked count, and the time it last ran. The trash icon on the row deletes the rule — it does not unblock the numbers that rule already caught. Numbers blocked this way appear in your list with Spam Detection System in the Blocked By column.

Check how many calls your blocked numbers made

1. Go to the Check Call History from Blocked Numbers card.
2. Pick a Time Period: Last 1 day, Last 3 days, Last 7 days, Last 14 days or Last 30 days.
3. Click Check History.

Three totals appear — Total Calls, Numbers that Called and Total Blocked — followed by a table showing Phone Number, Calls, Total Duration and Last Call for each offender.

Search and export the list

1. Type into Search numbers… at the top right of the Blocked Numbers list. It matches both the phone number and the reason text, so searching abusive pulls up every number blocked for that reason.
2. Click Export to download a spreadsheet file. It contains Phone Number, Reason, Blocked By and Blocked At.

The export follows whatever you have typed in the search box — clear the search first if you want the whole list. Large lists take a moment and you will see a “this may take a moment” message while it works. The list itself shows 100 numbers per page. Once you have more than 100 blocked numbers, Previous and Next buttons appear underneath it.

How to check it worked

1. The number is in the list. Search for it in the Blocked Numbers list. You should see it with your reason, your email address under Blocked By, and today’s date under Blocked At.
2. Rejected calls are being recorded. Open Calls from the sidebar and turn on the Show Blocked switch in the filter row. Blocked attempts are hidden from the Calls list by default — this switch reveals them. A blocked caller who tried again should show up here with a status of Blocked and a duration of zero.
3. The totals move. Come back to Blocked Numbers a few days later and run Check History for the last 7 days. A rising Total Calls with a flat number of complaints from your team is the filtering doing its job.
4. Automatic blocking is catching things. The Total Blocked counter in the Auto Spam Detection card and the Auto-blocked reasons in your list both tell you the automatic tools are actually firing.

Common mistakes

Blocking too aggressively

A rule like “3 calls in 60 minutes” will catch a determined customer as easily as a spammer. Start with generous settings, click Run Now, and look at what it caught before tightening.

Leaving the reason blank

The Reason box is optional and cannot be made mandatory. A list full of dashes in the Reason column is impossible to clean up safely later, because nobody can tell a spammer from a mis-click. Fill it in every time.

Pasting messy text into Bulk Import

Anything that is not recognisable as a phone number is dropped, quietly. Names, headers, notes and stray punctuation from a spreadsheet all get discarded. Always compare the count on the button (Import … Numbers) against how many numbers you expected before clicking.

Check History is greyed out

The Check History button stays disabled until you have at least one blocked number showing on the current page of the list. Clear the search box, go back to page 1 and try again.

The export is missing numbers

Export respects your search box. If you exported while filtering for “spam”, you got only the spam entries. Clear the search, then click Export.

Deleting a rule expecting numbers to unblock

Removing an Auto Spam Detection rule stops it from blocking anything new. It does not release the numbers it already blocked — remove those from the Blocked Numbers list yourself.