5 On Your Side: Tricks and tech for silencing annoying robocalls

Even with phone carriers stepping up efforts to block them, more and more robocalls have been getting through to people's phones.

Nicole Golliday of Clayton said she was bombarded daily.

"Every time I hung up, they would call back like three or four minutes later. And it was just constant, like ten in a row," she said.

She got eight of them, all supposedly from Amazon, within 30 minutes.

“It makes me angry that people feel like they can set up a computer and intrude on my life,” said Anne Bettinger, who has also struggled with robocall bombardment.

Bettinger says she's had luck with an app called Nomorobo. For just $2 a month, it claims to block robocalls.

Other call blockers include Hiya and Mr. Number, each $25 a year.

One app in particular, called Robokiller, actually has a bot answer robocalls. It provides a recorded message that can trick robocallers into a conversation. For $40 a year, this app actually wastes robocaller's time.

Their website says: Revenge never felt so good.

Many mobile carriers offer tools as well – so be sure to check.

Basic protection is usually free, but AT&T’s "even more protection" is about $4 dollars a month.

Some robocalls have cleverly learned to use the right area code, so they seem like a local number.

"I answered it, thinking it was a customer calling," said Golliday, who was tricked by a 919 area code.

Annoyed, she called back, and got the recorded message: This number has been disconnected or is not available.

However, by this summer the FCC says carriers need to roll out technology to truly identify who is calling.

In the meantime, you can try a trick Golliday shared.

"I don’t get them on my cell phone, knock on wood, but we do get them at the house," she said.

How is that possible?

"I don’t put my cell phone number into anything that I apply for. I always put my home number in," she said.

That’s hard because we’re constantly asked to link our phone number to accounts.

Tired of robocalls? Try this trick to silence the calls

She silenced unknown callers a couple of months ago and says it’s made an incredible difference in the number of phone interruptions she gets.

Unknown callers automatically go to voicemail.

While robocalls seem to have been increasing more than ever, it's helpful to know there are a few tricks and inexpensive apps available to help silence the unwanted ringing.