BT nuisance calls: How YOU can use the NEW blocking service in your home

Notorious nuisance call offenders will be blacklisted by the firm and these calls with be automatically diverted to a junk voicemail box to prevent BT’s customers from dealing with the irritating callers.

Up to 15 million calls will be blocked a week by the service, according to BT’s data.

The service will come as godsend to people sick of answering the phone to callers looking to sell them something they don’t want.

As well as BT automatically diverting calls from main offenders, BT customers can simply and easily block numbers, which will be added to the company’s data base if enough people block them and become automatically blocked for all users.

You can report numbers by dialing 1572 after hanging up on the latest irritating caller.

Kelly from BT Consumer told Which: “It could see 30m nuisance calls per week automatically diverted to a junk voicemail box, before they can be answered.

“Customers will be able to compile their own personal blacklist by adding individual unwanted numbers. They do this by dialling 1572 after receiving the call or by going online.

“If large numbers of customers identify troublesome numbers they wish to divert, these will be added to the wider BT blacklist.”

Esther Rantzen recently issued a warning to elderly Brits over nuisance callers.

Appearing on Sky News, Esther Rantzen revealed how to avoid being caught out by menace phone calls.

Esther, who works with TalkTalk, said: “If you receive a call that you aren’t sure about, there is a way to ensure you are speaking to a genuine company.

“Talk to the person on the other end of the phone – be perfectly polite.

“Then hang-up, go and make a cup of tea, and call whoever they say they are back.

“Don’t call the number they have given you, but find their company number independently – Google it or look them up in the phonebook.

“This is to make sure you are using the right number, as if it was a scam company who called you, they can make it look as if they are anyone, calling from anywhere.

The elderly are more vulnerable to nuisance callers as they are most likely to answer their landlines and least likely to have caller-ID installed.