Now, a gizmo to say 'no' to unwelcome callers

London, Oct 23 : Want to get rid of those irritating cold calls that you have to attend? Well, then TrueCall might just prove to be your ultimate saviour.

The TrueCall device acts as a buffer between the phone and the outside world and can easily distinguish between welcome and unwelcome callers.

Inventors and ex-telemarketers Steve Smith and John Price are the ones who came up with the idea for such a blocking gizmo.

"TrueCall is designed to give people control of their landlines. You can bolt the door and close the curtains but your landline is the weak link in your privacy," BBC quoted Price, as saying.

The new gadget intercepts all calls, and can differentiates if it is a friend or a member of the user's family-whose numbers the user can easily store on the star list-enabling the calls to reach normally.

In case the caller's number is on a zap list - numbers of telemarketers or other nuisance callers - it is the device that answers it, enabling all future calls from that number, with an automated message which means the phone does not ring at all.

When the system doesn't recognise the caller's number, the caller withholds their number, and asks them who they are, puts them on hold and then rings the user's phone.

Then it is up to the user to either, take the call, have the system take a message, or reject the call and add the number to the "zap" list. Users can add callers to their "star" list by pressing the star button on their phone at any point during a call.

In fact, the device could soon be able to download a list of blacklisted numbers from a central database, which can be dialled into via a modem inside the box.

This will transmit information about each call that was made, if this is requested by the user.

ANI