On Fri, 22 Jan 2021 12:31:50 -0600, Mark Lloyd wrote:

On 1/21/21 7:09 AM, Dan Espen wrote:

[snip]

Now I've adopted a new tactic for telemarketers.
I have Nomorobo which blocks about 80% of the calls.
For the rest, I pick up and don't say anything.
If it's a human they'll eventually start talking.
If it's a machine it eventually hangs up.
I've noticed the number of calls I get seems to be dropping off.
The big payoff is when I don't hear which scam it is, I don't
get as mad.

I still don't answer calls where the caller ID NAME is in the form of
city ST like "DALLAS TX" or "PITTSVILLE OH" or a few hings like "TOLL
FREE CALL" or "Out Of Area" (also unfamiliar or ambiguous company
names). People say using the CID NAME is useless. I ave no idea why,
since this matches the majority of the junk calls I get.

They probably say it's useless because with only a tiny bit of effort
callers can make it say whatever they want. The call center making a call
to me is likely to have my area code and prefix on the CID while a
simultaneous call going out to you might have your area code and prefix. Or
whatever they want it to say, of course, even if they put your own number
in there as the calling party.