Two Levels of Blocking iPhone 5s Calls and Messages

Up until my upgrading from the iPhone 4S to the 5s, I have been using the Silent ringtone (see sidebar for my custom made iPhone Silence ringtone) to ignore all unassigned contacts or unknown calls. I still use this ringtone to sort out who's who, and see if that person should be added to the contacts list and assigned a custom non-silence ringtone.

For persistent plaguy pests, I assigned them as pseudo-contacts. Then I quarantined these privacy intruders by using the iOS 7's "Block this Caller" on the iPhone. I will delete these contacts later. This method is much safer than the outright straight blocking of unfamiliar numbers. I could always unblock them later if they turned out to be relatives, friends, or friends of friends who had called with new or unfamiliar phone numbers. In any case, the final disposition of the blocked telephone numbers may be rendered at Settings>Phone (or Messages or FaceTime)>Blocked.

When unsolicitors calls are blocked, these vermin get a busy signal on their phones. Similarly, their spam and phishing text-messages get routed to Buzz Lightyear's "infinitas amplius!"