When you receive a call from a number you don’t recognize, it can be difficult to know whether to answer or not. I missed several calls from my dad, who was calling to tell me he had a new number, because I assumed it was an unwanted call. I tried Apple’s call screening features, but they seemed too restrictive and caused me to miss important calls from genuine people, so I decided to create a shortcut to check numbers while the call was still coming.
What the shortcut does
Check a number while it’s still ringing
In the past, when I received a call from a number I didn’t recognize, I would copy the number, paste it into Google, and search for it to see if it appears on sites that list common scam phone numbers. The problem was that when I looked up the number, the caller often hung up.
I wanted a way to quickly verify a number when the call comes in, so created a simple shortcut for iOS. When my phone rings and it’s a number I don’t recognize, I tap the back of my phone three times.which runs my scam checker shortcut. The shortcut takes a screenshot of my phone showing the incoming call number, extracts the phone number from the image, and then passes the number to ChatGPT along with a custom message.
ChatGPT performs a web search For that number, look for that or similar numbers on lists of known scammers. After completing the search, a message appears on my phone screen saying whether the call appears to be a scam or safe. I can then choose whether to answer the call based on the response.
The shortcut takes a few seconds to execute, but usually completes before the caller hangs up, unless you are only waiting for a ring or two. It means I have time to take the call if it’s safe, or ignore it or hang up if it’s a scam.
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A19 Pro Chip
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6.3 inches
The Apple iPhone 17 Pro is the company’s most powerful smartphone to date, offering impressive cameras and the A19 Pro chip. It lets you do just about anything, including shooting quality videos.
Building the shortcut
ChatGPT does the heavy lifting
Building the shortcut was surprisingly easy to do. It only requires four actions to do what you need to do.
The first action is Take screenshot Action, which takes a screenshot of what is currently displayed on the iPhone screen. The second action is Extract text from image action, which use OCR to extract the phone number from the screenshot.
The third action is Ask ChatGPT. For this action, I added the following message: Search for the phone number from this text and tell me if it's safe or spam. Make the first word of the response either "SCAM" or "SAFE" and keep your response brief. He Image text The variable generated by the previous action is added to the end of the message.
The final action is Show alert action. This shows the output of Ask ChatGPT action as a message on the screen, using the Ask ChatGPT variable generated by the previous action.
I then set the shortcut to run when I tap the back of the iPhone three times, although it is possible use the action button if you have one on your phone. To do this, go to Settings > Accessibility. Low Physical and Motorselect Tap. Scroll down and select Tap Back. Select Triple tapScroll down and select the shortcut you just created.
The shortcut is not perfect
AI is not always right
Overall, the shortcut works very well. It’s fast enough to tell me whether a call is genuine or likely a scam before most callers hang up.
However, it doesn’t always work perfectly. Sometimes I get an error telling me that I’m not logged into ChatGPT, which prevents the shortcut from working. Opening the ChatGPT app usually fixes this issue.
Some fraudulent calls I can still pass too. Just because a number isn’t found online doesn’t mean it’s not a scam; It’s just that no one has pointed out that particular number yet.
While the shortcut isn’t perfect, it still works well enough to continue using it daily. It’s very satisfying to know that a call is a scam and to be able to ignore it without worrying about missing an important call from someone you know.
Android has its own options
Call selection and automation
This trick uses iOS shortcuts, which means it’s not possible to recreate it exactly on Android. However, there are options that Android users can use. You can use the native call detection features on Android phones, although this may force genuine callers to identify themselves unnecessarily.
You may be able to create a similar automation on Android using options as Tasker. Tasker includes plugins that can send queries to AI services, so it should be possible to create automation that does the same.
Miss fewer important calls
I set up this shortcut because I was tired of missing important calls by not answering numbers I didn’t recognize. It has definitely improved things; I have answered calls from people like delivery drivers or the dentist, who I would not have answered before, because the shortcut marked their numbers as safe.
