Do Not Call List.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/technology/cybersecurity/call-screening-is-aggravating-the-rich-and-powerful/ar-AA1VgE1G

These dumb features are all due to people afraid of talking to and confronting people in the first place.  We've had a Do Not Call law for decades, since before the National Do Not Call List came out in the 1990s.  You just had to answer the phone and ask who they are, get their information and ask to be put on their Do Not Call list.  It was just that simple.

In the really early days, you had to do that with every individual company.  By the late 1980s and 1990s, that marketing call was outsourced to just a handful of major companies.  Whenever I got a new landline back then, I would get dozens of calls each day during the first month, and I would immediately interrupt the caller,

“Wait.” “Wait.” "I'm sorry, "Who are you?"

"What company are you calling from?"

Pretending I'm writing it down, "Say that again." Or, “Can you repeat that?” or “Sorry, I didn’t hear you.”

Then, "Ok, please put me on your Do Not Call List.."

It was as simple as that.  You usually did that maybe 3-5 times and that got almost everyone.  My calls dropped to maybe once a month to every other month, due to the few independent companies that did their own calls.  99% of my calls after the first 2-4 weeks became mostly legitimate calls.  Once you’ve told them to be added to their Do Not Call List, they can call you back one time, and that's usually to verify they got your number correctly.

After that, if they called you within a year, you could take them to small claims court for $500 per call, assuming you documented their calls.  I originally documented every call, but found that these legitimate marketing companies won't call you back within the year and usually won't call you back ever.  Keeping track of when you got added, then removing you from the Do Not Call list is a hassle for them, since anyone who does it once, will likely do it again.

Back when Landlines were the main phones, I only had to do that once at each address, whenever I had a new landline.  Each time I moved, I had to get a new number, and I had to start the process over.  Each time, I cut the number of calls to almost nothing, because I'd take the short amount of time to go through the process at the beginning and my number would be clean for years.  

When they put out that stupid National Do Not Call List back in the 1990s, I read the law and they politicians put in an exemption for themselves and for non-profits.  That was really bogus.  I continued to use the original Do Not Call law and didn't get on any politician’s lists.  My number stayed free from calls until the robocalls started.  Originally, I listened through the end and phone the number to press to be put on the do not call list.  These were more annoying that talking to someone, because you couldn't interrupt and had to listen to the entire junk spiel before you could find out what number to press.  Originally, during the first year it was 2, then 9, then back to 2 for a while.  After listening to a few I just started pressing the standard number. 

Since the Robocalls was software purchased by individual companies and not from the marketing services, they were new and I wasn't on their lists yet, I had to go through the process again.  I still eventually got all those robocalls from legitimate companies blocked.

Next came the illegal spammers starting their robocalling. I would answer and hit numbers but the scammers didn’t honor Do Not Calls, and just sold your number to the next spammer. I eventually pressed number to get to a person and tell them to stop scamming and don’t call me. Fortunately the Spanish and Chinese Speaking ones understood enough English to stop calling me.

I did get rid of one of them at a company I was doing consulting for, when they started suddenly ringing all the sequential numbers of their PBX.  I heard some rings around the office when it had just started, so I hadn't connected the dots when it got to me.  I picked up and heard the scammer robocall from the fake Bank of America in Chinese targeting Chinese Americans, and I just hung up.  I immediately heard another phone ring, then another, then another, and I realized it was that scammer going through his sequence, because I realized there were no rings when I answered.  Almost everyone else was downstairs in the clinical lab at this time.  Once I recognized what it was I started running to the next ringing phone to catch it and I eventually was fast enough to get to the 5th or 6th desk and pick up the call.

I was able to press a number to get the person on the line, and he responded in Chinese, and I immediately ask in English, "Why are you calling every number in this company?"  He was able to respond in broken English, to allow me to convey that he was calling the entire company phone tree, and he removed the 1000 reserved block of numbers and the office stayed quiet.  My desk number happened to be somewhat early in the sequence, so I stopped the calls from preceding into the lab downstairs and the other newer building that they just moved into.  Although they never knew this, I saved the executives, and the finance staff, and billing staff from this junk.

Back in the 1990s, I was a commuter student and arranged my classes so that I would really only go in 2 or 3 days a week. On the days I stayed home I mostly just finished homework and played video games.  I had free time so I would actually answer scammers and string them along while I played games or did my homework. College was probably the most free time I ever got.  I usually got 30 minutes into the call before I would get bored of the call and I'd finally called them a scammer.

I knew my Windows and Mac menus like the back of my hand and didn’t actually need a computer in front of me when the computer scammers called. I got to the 2nd tier “expert” scammer on a fake virus scan call, because I pretended to have a Mac after faking that I was clicking menus, then I switched and said I don’t see the item he described, then casually mentioned I had a Mac. He had to get his “expert” to help. I was sitting outside, not at a computer. Eventually, I was getting bored and when they wanted to ask for my payment, I decided to call them out for being scammers. The 2nd tier “expert” scammer immediately hung up, but the 1st guy stayed on and whined about me scamming them for stringing him along. I told him that he was actually the scammer, but he wouldn’t relent.  I just hung up.  Scammers stopped calling me for a little while after a few of those types of calls.

Now, they’re AI robocalls and I don’t want them saving my voice, so I now just let the phone pop up the “Possibly a Scammer” and I just block them now. I actually don’t like these. It means they’ll continue to call and reach naive people. People should have just answered the calls and ask to be put on the Do Not Call list. I sometimes answer and not say anything and they just hang up after a second of silence. That’s no fun. Maybe I should just have my Mac say “hello” to them next time. I need to have my terminal ready for that.

I don't have the patience to do what Scammer Payback and Kitboga does and spend hours on that.  I'd be too bored out of my skull after a while. The longest I’ve done it was 30 minutes.  They're popular for streaming their scam baiting exploits, but they weren't the first scambaiters.  I learned that from an early 1990s site that wrote up their scambaiting stories, before video on the web became a thing, and I thought I try it a few times. I have watched many of their entertaining videos. Unfortunately, they’re still only dealing with the tip of the iceberg. They mainly deal with one category of scammers and have ignored other categories.