How to call someone who blocked you

Most people who think they're blocked are being avoided, not blocked. The symptoms overlap almost completely with a phone that's off, in Do Not Disturb, or simply not being answered.

The signals that point toward a block:

• Your call rings exactly once, consistently, then drops to voicemail — every time, at different hours, over several days.
• On iPhone, an iMessage stays blue but never shows Delivered, while your messages to other people do.
• Everything else about their line looks normal — someone else can reach them fine.

What proves nothing: a single unanswered call, a green bubble (that just means SMS, not a block), or "the person you are calling is not available" (a network message, not a block message). There is no code, no service, and no app that can definitively confirm a block from the outside — anything claiming otherwise is guessing or selling something.

Dial ***67** immediately before the number: *67 then the full number, then call. Your number arrives as "No Caller ID" or "Private".

This often works, because a block list matches a specific number and a withheld number presents no number to match. It's the most common workaround, and it's free on every US carrier.

Two things stop it. If they've enabled Silence Unknown Callers on iPhone (or the equivalent Android filter), withheld calls go straight to voicemail without ringing — a setting that's increasingly common precisely because of this workaround. And *67 doesn't hide you from emergency services or toll-free numbers, which capture the originating line regardless.

Be aware of what this actually does: it disguises who's calling. If the person recognises the pattern, an anonymous call from someone they've blocked reads as more alarming, not less.

A block applies to one number, so any other line rings normally: a work phone, a family member's phone, a landline, or a free second number from a service like Google Voice.

This is the approach to use when the reason is legitimate and identifiable — you want them to know who's calling and why, you just need the call to connect. Say who you are immediately. An unexpected call from an unknown number that turns out to be someone they blocked is the worst possible opening.

If the matter is genuinely formal — money owed, tenancy, custody, legal notice — a different phone number is usually the wrong tool. Written contact you can evidence later (email, recorded delivery, a solicitor's letter) serves you far better than a phone call they never agreed to take.

If what you actually need is for them to receive information rather than to have a conversation, a message that doesn't ring their phone is both more effective and more proportionate.

Direct-to-voicemail services deposit a recording into a voicemail box without placing a ringing call. Note that this is not a way around a block — a blocked caller's voicemail still lands in the blocked section on iPhone, where they may never see it — but from an unblocked line it delivers a message without demanding they pick up.

Email, or a message through a channel they haven't blocked, is usually the better route. Blocking a phone number rarely means blocking every channel, and reaching out on a channel they've left open is a meaningfully different act from circumventing the one they closed.

A block is an explicit request not to be contacted on that line. Occasionally overriding it for something necessary and time-limited is one thing. Repeatedly evading it is another, and the law in most US states recognises the difference — repeated unwanted contact, particularly using withheld or rotating numbers, can constitute harassment or stalking regardless of what you intended.

If there's a restraining order or no-contact order in place, none of the methods on this page are appropriate. Contact goes through your lawyer.

If you're on the receiving end of this — someone repeatedly working around your block — the practical countermeasures are Silence Unknown Callers, a documented log of the attempts, and, if it continues, your carrier's abuse line and the police. Documentation matters more than blocking does.