My doctor's calls to my iPhone are being flagged as spam ... how do I stop this?

I have a new medical issue and the provider I am using has tried to call several times.  But the calls are being blocked by my  iPhone as potential spam. We managed to connect on Zoom and tried it in real time and verified this is what is happening.

I put them into my contacts thinking this would fix it but nope. Still being blocked.


this is nuts, there must be a way to whitelist them. I have googled and found lots of ways to block callers but no way to un-spam a caller. Any ideas??


Are you using the Silence Unknown Callers app on your iPhone? If so, what happens to that doc's calls if you turn it off? I wonder if that app has a flagged phone number list you can edit. 


the question is what's flagging it as spam? Is it the iPhone itself or an app?


I think I figured this out.  Verizon blocked it.
I was actually looking for something I could take a screen shot of so I could post here and stumbled on how to fix it. Blocked spam calls don't even show up as missed on my phone ... I see a very brief notice on my screen if I happen to be looking just as the call comes in. (That is how we figured it out on our Zoom call.)

But I can find those in old notifications (pull down from top of the phone), when I did this I saw something like "manage this" which I pressed on .. took me to a Verizon site where I could say I allow this caller. Presumably this will fix the problem .. I hope so as they rarely pick up their phone and I am relying on call backs.

Fwiw provider is an Atlantic Health group so not exactly fly-by-night! No idea why Verizon thinks it is spam.


Do you have an app on your phone called Call Filter? That appears to be how Verizon tries to block spam.


Yeas, that seems to be it. I don't remember installing it though - I think it was already there & enabled when I got the phone. (Though who knows ..,) I have had the phone about 2 years and don't think I have missed any other calls this way but unless they found another way to contact me not sure how I would know.

Anyway it is solved ... thanks for everyone's input. Now I know something I didn't know before, always useful.

drummerboy said:

Do you have an app on your phone called Call Filter? That appears to be how Verizon tries to block spam.


Have you tried adding that name and number to your phone directory?



This is one of the reasons I prefer manual controls rather than trusting AI to take care of things. 

My Pixel phone's options and indicators work well for me. When a call comes in, the screen shows the contact, or gives guidance such as 'possible SPAM' or 'Likely: Medical' notification next to the number calling.  I have 4 choices when the phone rings:

  • UP to answer
  • DOWN to decline (sends to VM)
  • Reply message
  • Screen Call with Google

If I don't know the caller, I choose to Screen Call. 

Then it quietly shows me text on the screen of the Google automated screening service conversation (asking caller for name and why calling), and will show text of what the person responds. 

I'm then given several choice buttons: Answer/Decline (hangs up on caller after Google service tells them I'm not available)/"Tell me more" which the Google assistant says to the caller/ etc). 


When my sister got sick, I had just set up controls on my iPhone to send unrecognized calls to junk. I found out that I could not have that filter on and get calls from doctor's offices because often they will call from their private cells and hide the number. It's a little disconcerting answering a call from "unknown" but I knew that likely it was the doctors' offices. It always was. 


That was the first thing I did, and it didn't solve the problem. I had to find the notification (by pulling down on the screen from the top of the phone)and from there was able to whitelist the caller.

I found this solution by accident ... hope it helps somebody else as I was pretty flummoxed at first!

Apollo_T said:

Have you tried adding that name and number to your phone directory?




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