How do you know if someone has blocked your phone number

Your number may be blocked if you hear a message such as "The caller is not accepting calls." You may also get a busy signal without any ringing occurring.

To block your phone number and name from appearing on a recipient's caller ID on a single phone call, dial 67 before dialing the phone number. You must redial 67 each time you place a new call as well. The Truth in Caller ID Act of 2009, which was signed into law on December 22, 2010, prohibits caller ID spoofing for the purposes of defrauding or otherwise causing harm.

Just in: cell phone theft is growing in the U.S. In San Francisco last year, nearly half of all robberies involved a cell phone, up from 36% the year before; in Washington, cell phones were taken in 42% of robberies.

Apple provides assistance in locating lost or stolen phones with its free software, which is called Find My iPhone, which can find a missing iPhone or remotely erase data from the missing iPhone. There is also a new nationwide database for stolen cell phones. However, police officials say the database has not entirely helped the ever-rising numbers of phone thefts in the U.S.