I wish your post was true. I have been receiving repeated calls for a few months from at least 3 different unknown callers and I NEVER answer any of them. In the month of July, the calls became more frequent after no answering, rather than less frequent. Sometimes the calls would be more than once daily, just daily, or every couple of days from one or more of the callers. No rhyme or reason other than we have your number in our system and we will not stop calling you until we feel like it. By the way, this was on my cell phone, a number I have only given out to a few family members, my children's schools, and a handful of doctors. Prior to a few months ago, I hardly ever got an unknown call on that phone after over 2 years with that phone number.
During the same time, the calls on our home phone were actually decreasing. The home phone is unlisted but none of this matters as all the junk callers use robo dialing so do not call lists, unlisted numbers, and limited exposure does nothing to prevent the calls. And as I stated before, neither does failure to answer them.