Help with phone for elderly Mum

smallzoo2

Hi
My mum who is 96 lives with us in an annexe and we have the main phone in our house and one in hers. We never use the landline any more but she uses to get calls from my brothers and her brother ( who is 93 ! ). 
Anyway we have notice a big increase in scam calls recently. Very clever calls that come on different numbers so cant track them down..you know what I mean !
We tried the 100% nuisance blocking call service from BT ...100% you are joking !...My mum at 96 has to decide whether to accept a call or not and they all are coming from different numbers..it just doesnt work.

Is there anyway she could have a phone which would only allow SPECIFIC numbers to get through..nothing else.
I cant believe with the technology of today that BT still doesnt seem to have this service ( unless I am missing something )
Thanks a lot

p.s. Her sight is poor so the mobile phone idea wouldn't work either unless it was a BIG phone with a BIG accept and end buttons

Neil_Jones

https://www.truecall.co.uk/ might be of interest.  Exxpensive, yes, at £100 and then £20 a year ongoing, but supposedly as good as it gets.  This is independent of the device and sits between the line and the phone.

Robin9

Swop the phones to a BT8500 - absolutely brilliant - never had a nuisance call - can be programmed to accept only specific numbers.

knightstyle

I totally agree with Robin9 we have the earlier version and never get a scam call.  You enter all the numbers that go straight through when setting up. Any calls not on the list have to say who is calling and the person answering can accept or reject the call.  Obviously the scammers hang up before making an announcement so we have no idea how many call.

J_B

My in-laws (89 and 85) have a BT phone system (two handsets and an answerphone) as Robin9 says - they get zero junk calls

MalMonroe

Hi, I've also been looking for such a phone, so have been grateful for the info on here.

However, the BT8500 now seems to have been replaced by the BT4600. 

More information in this link -  https://shop.bt.com/learnmore/bt-branded-products-and-services/bt-home-phones/

P.S. they also have a nuisance blocker phone in John Lewis. 

JJ_Egan

As above on BT8500.8600 etc you add your contacts  then whitelist them .

All other calls are then asked to leave a message , the scammers ring off .

smallzoo2

I've read the details on the 4600 etc and I dont understand what you mean. We have a call blocking service where the person has to announce the name and then my mum can accept or reject. She is 98 with slight dementia. We cannot expect her to decide on what call she needs to block especially as they come in on different numbers. In your descriptions it says only specific numbers get through but thats not what the BT description says..it still says it has user intervention which we dont want
Am I wrong ?

JJ_Egan

BT 8500 and later models .

From new  setup address book .

Decide on the callers you want to get through and whitelist them .

All other calls go to answerphone and scammers ring off .

Ten calls this week on my phone  . 3 family  numbers whitelisted > phone rings . 1 call went to answer phone and the rest scammers who rang off .

However their is no way i know of that a network can decide what numbers you want to accept or not .

smallzoo2

Ah thanks. so 8500 non whitelisted go direct to answerphone ?.. thats fine as long as the only calls that get through are her sons, brothers etc.. cheers

smallzoo2

8500 is discontinued