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When I moved into my current residence, I got a new phone number (landline) to go with it. I was quickly deluged with calls from bill collectors, looking for people I've never met, and I made the mistake of thinking that it would die down fairly quickly. By the time I realized that it was not going to, I'd already given the number to bunches of people I want to have it, and I didn't want to have to go through the trouble of changing it.

Along with my service bundle from the telco, I get my choice of x "calling features," so I went for call blocking. It works, but the blocklist has a maximum of 25 phone numbers, and I need far, far more than that. It also doesn't let me completely block numbers that don't have a valid ID ("unavailable" or "out of area" or "unknown" or "blocked" or "private"...)

So, I pressed an old XP era laptop into service being a call blocker. I put some call blocking software on it (PhoneTray, if you wanted to know; no affiliation with them other than being a one-time customer) and plugged a phone cord into its modem. It has caller ID capability on the modem, so it can screen my calls quite well, and it has an unlimited blocklist, not to mention the ability to block any of the "unavailable" numbers. It doesn't need to be connected to the internet to do this, so its XPness is of no concern, and while it won't block calls if I let it go to sleep mode (it wakes up on the call, but the caller ID string has already been sent, so it can't act on it. I forget what it does do, but the bottom line is that it did not work). Fortunately, being a laptop, it uses little energy idling with the LCD backlight and HDD off.

Now that years have elapsed, the bill collectors have finally stopped (or mostly have; they could be among the 25 blocked at the telco level, so I never see them logged). In their place is a barrage of calls from telemarketers and scammers. I would not be surprised if the bottom-feeder bill collectors that ended up with the unknown deadbeat's accounts didn't give my number to scammers as a form of revenge for me not paying someone else's bills.

Even with that gauntlet, I still don't answer unless I expect and want the call. Otherwise, I let it go to the answering machine (digital, built into the cordless phone base) and call back if I want to. If they don't leave their identity and reason for calling, and that information is not in the caller ID log, I don't call back (everyone knows the drill by now, don't they? If they only leave a number, I assume they are a scammer or bill collector).

I only answer my cell phone (a nearly ten year old feature phone) if I am expecting a specific prearranged call. I never read texts or get any voice mail on it. Everyone who I would actually want to talk to knows I am not a cell phone person, so they know to use my landline.

There should be some way I can flag my phone line to only accept calls from callers using a legitimate, unspoofed caller ID. I know the limitations and the caveats-- I'm just saying I wish it were not so.