This is the magic phrase you have to say to stop receiving spam calls.

Sales calls, now also known as spam calls, are those in which companies contact you trying to sell you a product or service. These have been one of the most annoying things for users, because not only do we often find what they offer uninteresting, but they often catch us at the worst possible moment.

Whether it's just as we close our eyes for a nap or just before we're ready to pay for our groceries, these companies seem to have a sixth sense for calling when we need it most. And it's not just a one-time occurrence; we sometimes receive several of these spam calls.

Furthermore, with the rise of cybercrime and calls being one of the most popular ways to scam us, it's normal to want to stop these types of calls as soon as possible to avoid further confusion between a sales call and a phone scam.

While it's true that this type of call has been regulated in Spain , and the number of calls received by users has initially been reduced, spam calls are still a nuisance that could end up leaving you saying a few "magic" words.

How to stop spam calls

When we receive one of these calls, our instinct is to hang up. However, this only postpones the problem, as we'll receive another one hours or days later. The key here is to ask the following question: " Where did you get my number?"

This is because with the data protection law, on the one hand, companies cannot make random calls as they did before, and nowadays they have to tell you where they got our number from and how they are treating said information,

The situation can lead to two outcomes: first, they tell us that it's a company with which we've signed some kind of contract or agreement , and among the conditions is one in which we've authorized them to make sales calls. In this case , we'll simply have to ask them to stop, and following the regulations of the Data Protection Agency (AEPD), they'll have to stop.

However, it's also possible that the operator refuses to give you this information (which is illegal and reportable to the Spanish Data Protection Agency) , which would mean they made the call randomly. In these cases, if you ask the magic question, they usually hang up on you without saying anything else and, in principle, won't call you back.

If you continue to receive these types of calls in the following days, what you should do is write down the number they're calling from and, while you're on the call , threaten to file a complaint with the AEPD (Spanish Data Protection Agency) . This is usually enough to at least stop the company from calling you.