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How to Find Out Who Is Calling You

This post discusses how to identify legitimate calls and avoid scammers, addressing phone verification, spoofed numbers, and web searching. It provides options like reverse phone lookup websites and tools like WhoCallsMe, Spy Dialer, PeopleFinders, and USPhoneBook. It also suggests utilizing mobile carrier solutions, reporting to the FTC, and the National Do Not Call Registry to combat spam calls.

RAYMOND OGLESBY @RaymondOglesby2
June 11, 2024

This is for any browser on a desktop, laptop, or smartphone. Screenshots are from Google Chrome on Windows 10

The phone rings and it’s a number you do not recognize. Or perhaps an unknown number shows up in your missed calls. You are curious but do not want to pick up or call back if it’s a telemarketer or scammer. Instead of playing robocall roulette let’s explore five ways to see who is calling before you engage.

Legit Verses Scam Calls

You may have noticed that America has a problem with scam calls. Scammers took $10 billion from unsuspecting victims in 2023, and it’s hard to see the problem going away anytime soon. If you get a call, there are a few ways to tell if it’s legit or not.

What does the phone say? When a call comes in, look for a displayed number and location. If your phone is not showing any information and says something like Unknown, chances are there’s a scammer on the other end. Anyone can hide their number, but it’s best to let this one go to voicemail and call back if it’s someone you know. If the phone says Scam Likely, it’s typically correct; just ignore the call.
Look for verification. Carriers have started verifying phone numbers when you receive a call. Google’s phone app also adds a badge on incoming calls that can be attached to a business. Unfortunately, this does not verify every call from a legitimate business or weed out legitimate businesses that use robocalls.
Watch out for spoofed numbers. Have you ever gotten a call from what looks to be your own phone number, only it’s a few numbers off? Do not pick those calls up; scammers like to spoof phone numbers and trick you into picking up. They think you are more likely to pick up if the call is from your area code or someone you know.

Note! We recommend ou not click or tap on any icon off the main screen. These buttons launch web sites that may introduce malware or be blocked by your browser security. Also, any screen that has flashing items, immediately exit the screen.

If you click or tap on a button that starts a scanning process for addresses,emails, public information, criminal records, etc., the process will take several minutes. On the desktop, you can stop the process by hitting Cntl-Alt-Del keys, then select Task Manger. Next, right=-click on your browser entry and select End Task. Your browser will exit stopping the scanning process.

Search the Web

If you want to quickly know whether a caller is legit or a scammer, do a quick web search. As a rule of thumb, if the search results are primarily reverse phone lookup websites, it’s safe to say other people have received unwarranted calls from that same number and are reporting it to warn others. Refer to the below image:

Reverse Phone Lookup

Speaking of reverse phone lookups, if you want to do some digging about a certain phone number, many websites can help you. You usually have to pay to get any worthwhile information, but there are a few tools that can help you for free. Even though they are free if you want additional information about the phone number, the sites charge for their service.

whocallsme

At WhoCallsMe, users can report their experiences with specific phone numbers. Enter a number and the website will tell you where the area code is from. You can then enter your own report or view what others say about it. See the below image:

spy dialer

Spy Dialer allows you to search for phone numbers, names, addresses, and emails. Enter a phone number, then choose if you want to look up any linked names or photos, listen to the number’s outbound voicemail, or confirm if the number is spam or not. Spy Dialer can tell you with whom the number is registered, their general location, and whether or not the number has been reported as spam before.

For more information, click Phone Details to see how long the line has been in service and if the number is spoofed. Choose Hear Voicemail to get the caller’s outbound voicemail, if available. You can click Report Call to file a complaint with Spy Dialer.

We recommend this site over the others because it’s faster and offers more information. See the following image:

peoplefinders

PeopleFinders allows you to look up a phone number, name, address, or email. Enter a phone number into the search bar to get the caller’s general location, carrier, and phone type. More revealing information, such as the caller’s full name and address, is hidden requiring a fee. Refer to the below image:

usphonebook

You can look up phone numbers, names, and addresses at USPhoneBook, though this works better for identifying individuals rather than businesses. Enter a number to find the person connected to it. The site will display a list of people who may be related to the person. You can then mark the number as safe or spam. Keep in mind that these listings can be outdated.

Click Get Details to view extra information about the person. This will include their age, current (and former) addresses, phone numbers associated with them, a list of relatives and associates, and even related email addresses. See the below image:

What To Do Next

One option is to look at your mobile carrier’s anti-spam solutions for stopping spam calls and robo texts. Additionally, apps likeRoboKiller and Truecaller help keep the spam callers at bay. You can also report unwanted calls to the FTC and register your number with the National Do Not Call Registry, though those wishing to do you harm will undoubtedly ignore this. See the following image:

Calls You 6 — National Do Not Call Registry main screen

Disclaimer

Technology is always changing. Rarely is there static tech for smartphones and desktops. Thus, the contents of this post are only valid at the time of writing. Blog posts older than six months may have directions incompatible with your device or OS. Hopefully, older post content will continue to work as advertised. Thank you for reading TechSavvy.Life for Technology at Work For You.

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How to Delete All Facebook Messages/Chats at Once

The post discusses methods for deleting Facebook Messenger chats on iPhone and desktop. It advises changing message retention settings on the iPhone and provides steps for deleting messages on both platforms. It also mentions using Chrome extensions for bulk deletion.

RAYMOND OGLESBY @RaymondOglesby2
April 2, 2024

This is for the iPhone and desktop using Google. Screenshots are from iPhone 14 Pro running iOS 17.3 and Windows 10.

I was surprised at the number of Facebook Messenger chats on my iPhone. I started to delete them one at a time. But doing so was too time-consuming; there had to be a better way.

If you research this post, you will find articles that say bulk deletion of chats cannot be done. But with the help of Google Extensions, you can delete all your chats at once.

This blog post is one of my favorites, especially since I have thousands of chats that I want to delete. We had forgotten that the Forever option was selected, which as you may guess, saves your chats forever.

Where is a chat, a message, a conversation, or a thread used?

A chat is a term used in Messenger (owned by Facebook). A message is a term found on Facebook. In Facebook if there is more than one message with a person, group, or entity, that is labeled a conversation. For a thread, that is used in Reddit.

Check Your Settings

Why do you have hundreds or thousands of chats? On your iPhone head to:

Settings > Messages > Keep Messages

and tap the option. If the option is set to Forever you will have lots of chats. Refer to the below image:

FB Messages 1 — Your Facebook Message time setting

We recommend you choose another option. When you do so, all older chats will be automatically deleted. We are selecting to delete messages older than one year. On the confirmation screen, tap Delete Older Messages. See the below image:

FB Messages 3 — Selecting to delete messages older than one year

Your Keep Messages will now be set to the option you just chose. See the following image:

FB Messages 5 — Your Keep Messages setting

Deleting Facebook messages does not have to be incredibly difficult. Whether you are deleting one or an entire history, there are options for you to do both with minimal effort.

Some users may find it easier to delete their entire Facebook account, although we do not recommend this. For now, let’s just clean up your messages/chats.

Using iPhone

Deleting messages on an iPhone or iPad one at a time:

Open the Facebook Messenger app.
Tap and hold the message that you no longer want, then swipe to the left.
When the menu appears, select Delete.
Confirm the selection by tapping Delete.

If you want to delete in bulk, it would be best to use a browser.

Using a Browser

Log into your Facebook account.
Click See all in Messenger.
Click on the 3-dot menu icon next to a conversation.
Click Delete Chat if you want to erase all the chats.
Confirm your deletion by clicking Delete Chat.

But what can you do about multiple messages and multiple conversations? For this, you have to install a third-party browser extension.

Using a Chrome Extension

Extensions become a part of your web browser and allow you to perform various functions on a website. To delete multiple or all of your Facebook message history, we need to install a web browser extension.

Whether it’s Chrome, Firefox, or Internet Explorer, we will begin by using Google to pull up the Web Store.

Note! You will find a lot of Chrome extensions for deletion of messages. We strongly recommend only using the following extensions from the Chrome web store, not from third-party web sites.

Extension: Delete Facebook Messages

You want to use Google Search to find the “Delete Facebook Messages” extension. Once you have found it, click Add to Chrome. Refer to the below image:

FB Messages 6 — Adding Delete Facebook Messages Chrome extension

You will be prompted through various pop-ups until that extension is added. To view the added extension:

Click the 3-dot menu icon in the upper right-hand > Exenesions > Manage Extensions

See the below image:

FB Messages 7 — Delete Facebook Messages Chrome extension

Now, let’s add the extension icon to the Chrome toolbar. Click the Details option. See the following image:

FB Messages 8 — Selecting Details for the Chrome extension

Next, toggle the Pin to toolbar to ON. Refer to the below image:

FB Messages 9 — Toggle Pin to toolbar to ON

Now, the Delete Facebook Messages icon will be in your toolbar. See the below image:

FB Messages 10 — The Chrome extension icon

Next, click the Delete Facebook Messages icon and choose the Begin Deletion option. See the following image:

FB Messages 11 — Launching the Chrome extension

Note! To use this extension more than once, there is a subscription fee.

Extension: Message Cleaner

To install the Chrome extension, search for Message Cleaner using Google Search, then select Add to Chrome. Refer to the below image:

B Messages 13 — Adding the Message Cleaner Chrome extension

Follow the directions above to add its icon to the toolbar.

The extension icon will be labeled Delete all Facebook Messages in your Chrome toolbar. When you click the extension icon you can Open Messages and Delete All Messages. For one-click deletion, press the F8 key. See the below image:

FB Messages 12 — Launching the Message Cleaner Chrome extension

This extension works best if you scroll down to the bottom of the message list. Once you start the extension, it will recognize all the messages as being selected for removal. You can also then pick individual messages that you may want to save.

If you selected “all” before clicking “confirm,” the only way to get those messages back is to ask the person you sent them to for help or to use data recovery methods to retrieve backed-up information, assuming you have them backed up.