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My land line is linked to Nomorobo which blocks many but not all junk calls. Most of the calls to it which get through are from spoofed numbers, some of which are the "neighbor" spoofs where the area code+exchange matches mine. Other junk calls often come from those "Health Care Hotline" faked numbers which usually but not always manage to stay one step ahead of Nomorobo. When a call does get through, I often answer it but stay silent, just to mess with them a little. If I hear a robocaller begin its speech, I hit the # sign a bunch of times which I once heard confuses the robodialer. Not sure if it works, though.
If I get 2 or more junk calls from the same number, after I have reported it to Nomorobo, I can add that number (or a legit number I just don't want to hear from) to my blocked-call list. Thanks to these features and options, I don't get too many junk calls on the land line any more.
I don't have the same features and options on my cell phone. It's a simple flip phone with pay-per-minutes, so I don't want to burn up my minutes answering it just to listen to the speeches. I'd say nearly half of the junk callers there are from neighbor spoofed numbers. I have given out my number to maybe 10 people, so it is easy to identify a caller not on my contacts list. Anyone who has my precious cell number I have already told not to use it unless they tried calling me on my land line unsuccessfully. Can't use Nomorobo there.
When the cell phone rungs, and I see a number and not a name from my contacts list, I just lift the lid on my phone a half inch and let it close right away. This doesn't burn up any minutes and ends the noise pollution from the ringer. Maybe it's not the best thing to do because the robodialer "believes" the call got through. Sometimes, by mistake, I hit a button on the side of the phone which seems to trigger a rejection of the call. Not sure if that is any better, and I can't figure out which button I actually hit to generate that response. I may go a few days without a junk caller on the cell, then get 3 or 4 per day on it. Around 90-95% of all calls/texts on my cell are junk, making my cell phone mostly a receptacle for unwanted calls and texts (and I do have to pay for those unwanted texts; I have called and yelled at the biggest offender there).
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Retired in late 2008 at age 45. Cashed in company stock, bought a lot of shares in a big bond fund and am living nicely off its dividends. IRA, SS, and a pension await me at age 60 and later. No kids, no debts.
"I want my money working for me instead of me working for my money!"
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