Summary / TL;DR — My phone calls to the US are getting blocked, wtf is going on?
I need to call an agency that is located in the United States. My mobile and landline phones are not able to dial out to any US numbers, as they are blocked from connecting.
When calling a US number, there is no ringtone and I rather immediately get the following message:
“The number you are calling from has been reported as spam. If you believe this is incorrect, please dial 1 to report the issue, and visit freecallerregistry.com to register your number.” (Dialing 1, however, does absolutely nothing!)
Unblocking my number through the above mentioned website seems impossible … this is a service exclusively designed for and available to US numbers only, not international / Japanese phone numbers.
I have contacted both my landline provider (NTT East Japan) and also talked with tech support folks responsible for services via the Rakuten Link Mobile app.
NTT East Japan was not aware of how they could make an unblock request on my behalf, and suggested dialing 0036 prior to the 010 prefix. This didn’t work.
Rakuten Link Mobile was completely unhelpful, refusing to even discuss the issue and said that due to the terms of service, it is not their responsibility to offer any assistance if there are problems with making international calls.
My understanding is that local Japanese telecoms *could* in theory request my numbers to be unblocked with the US carriers, but obviously I am having some difficulty with that.
I then went to the Loppi machine at Lawson’s konbini, only to find out that they no longer sell international prepaid calling cards! So I am at a bit of a loss regarding what to do.
The US agency that I need to contact is unwilling to use WhatsApp or Zoom, and I wonder if a VoIP app is my only possible solution at this point?
I am concerned that VoIP apps may similarly also be blocked from calling to the US from Japan, so I am wondering if anyone can recommend an app that 100% definitely works for them.
I assume these blocks are the result of recent FCC efforts to curb robocalls and scam operations, so this must be impacting others as well, right?
What do folks think? Has anyone else had this problem?
Thanks for suggestions about specific VoIP apps that folks have direct experience with, or any other ideas for getting past the US call block.
Super appreciate any help to deal with this! : )
by 9520x