For a number of years now, there have been simple and easy tools to collaboratively blacklist email addresses that are known for sending unsolicited commercial messages. In fact, such features are available on most free, web-based email platforms, including GMail, Hotmail, and Yahoo Mail. Now, a web-based company called PhoneSpamFilter.com is applying the same concept to uninvited telemarketers.

“PhoneSpamFilter.com is a free service designed to assist the general public in determining which callers are annoying telemarketers,” the company says on its website. “Our goal is to develop a complete database of all the phone solicitors out there, so you can stop receiving calls trying to sell you products and services.”

The user-supported service encourages visitors to submit telemarketers’ phone numbers (along with descriptions of unwanted calls they’ve received) to a public database, assisting other users in determining which incoming calls to ignore or block.

PhoneSpamFilter.com provides visitors with handy reverse lookup directory to determine where unwanted calls are originating, as well as software allowing them to automatically block certain kinds of calls when their phone is connected to a computer modem. The application that does this is a modified version of the open-source Caller ID application, YAC, and can be downloaded here.