Groups use FaceTime for spam and prank calls, users can’t block all numbers

While most of us use FaceTime to chat with family and friends, there are some people who use the app to annoy other users. Some users have complained about a large number of spam calls and pranks they received through Apple’s FaceTime, and they can’t even block all of those numbers.

As reported by Ars Technica, a significant number of users have frequently received unwanted FaceTime calls over the past few weeks. Spam callers use Group FaceTime to call up to 31 users at a time. When someone hangs up, a different number calls that user immediately, so it becomes difficult to ignore the prank.

In the Apple Support Community, dozens of users reported receiving multiple unknown calls on FaceTime. “Since then, I have received about 7 additional calls throughout the day,” said one user. “When I realized what it was, I hung up and he called me back 11 more times,” said another. Similar reports were also found on Reddit.

The high volume of callbacks seems to be the result of other people getting the call back to everyone when the initial call fails shortly after answering. As more and more people are getting follow-up calls, they are also starting to make reminders.

While you might think this could be fixed with the block button, it’s not as easy as it sounds. Since FaceTime calls are meant to work like normal phone calls, you should block each number or Apple ID individually. There are no options to block multiple numbers at the same time or even to only receive calls from people in your contact list.

Unfortunately, there isn’t much that affected users can do at this time. Of course, users can turn off FaceTime in settings, but that also prevents them from using the app for anything else – and certainly shouldn’t be the only option for those who have received those annoying calls. Hopefully Apple will add more filters for FaceTime calls with a software update in the future.

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