Here in Korea, you might be unlucky enough to get a bunch of robot spam calls to your mobile phone. Some of these are from "여론조사" (public opinion polling). These are usually from political campaigns and are annoying calls that you likely do not want to participate in or receive.
In fact here's an article out today that details some of the headaches with these types of calls:
Recently, people have criticized that there are too many phone polls about the upcoming general election. Many people said online that they were stressed by the constant phone polls during the Lunar New Year holidays. Mobile operators provide voters' mobile numbers to pollsters, but the recent increase in opinion polls has led to an increase in requests from subscribers of the three major mobile carriers to refuse to provide virtual phone numbers.
They often appear under "050" numbers. Using spam call blocking apps or caller ID apps, like Whoscall or WhoWho, can help prevent some or at least help you identify them so you know not to bother picking up.
But here's a fast and simple method to block these calls.
The telecom companies each provide a simple way to do this, so just do this depending on who you're a customer of.
- SKT - dial 1547, press 1 after the robot voice finishes, then input your date of birth YYYYMMDD
- KT - just dial 080-999-1390
- LG U+ - dial 080-855-0016 then press 1 when the robot voice finishes talking
This should also work with sub-operating MVNOs (the "알뜰폰" services, such as SK7, KTM, Hello Mobile, UMobile, Snowman, FreeT, Smartel, Toss Mobile, etc).
This basically registers your number for blocking receipt of "virtual" phone numbers, which marketing firms often use to reach you via their banks of automated robo-calling. This won't block actual physical "real" phone numbers so marketers can still reach you that way, which is why it's still good to use a Spam/ID app if you can.
I'm curious if any legitimate solicited services that employ virtual numbers would be affected by this. But if you're sick of these calls, it's probably worth it overall.
For another method of blocking more annoying spam calls, see:
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