I have a couple of ways to deal with these parasites. First, I let the phone ring three full times before I pick up. I pick up and don't say anything for 2-3 seconds. If it is a computer autodialer, 80-90% of the time the computer will hang up thinking it has gotten a voice mail or answering machine. After 2-3 seconds, I say our company name, but don't give out my name. That way they don't automatically have a name if they call back and get someone else. If I still get a person and they insist, I tell them my name is "Richard Smith"(it's not). It is none of their business what my real name is, they are telescammers who are breaking the law. If they persist in calling over and over again, I tell them that my boss is available, and then I use a sports air horn right next to the phone. What are they going to do, sue me? "Your Honor, I was illegally telescamming and they deafened me!" Good luck with THAT argument. The judge might give me a medal. Reporting these "people"(I use that term loosely) to the Do Not Call Registry is futile, they are usually spoofing their phone number anyway. If you have the time, have some fun with them. See how long they will stay on hold or still be on the line if you put the phone down. Take your cordless into the bathroom and have an extended "deposit" at the Porcelain Bank, complete with very loud fake sound effects. Tell them you ARE the boss and listen to their sales pitch, never saying yes to anything, but always saying that you will look at your numbers and see what you can do. Some scammers will record any affirmative answer you give and then splice it into a call and bill you for whatever they are selling, using that as evidence of an order. Waste as much of their time as you can, because that keeps them from scamming other people, and it can be a really fun stress reliever! Anything that we can do to make this less profitable for these ticks on the butt of humanity is a plus. Feel free to pass this on or add to it with your fun ways of taking back your phone lines. If these idiots would get a real job, the world would be a better place for all of us.
Beware of pressing 1 for any unsolicited call, and here is why.
I live in Canada, and about 10 years ago, a phone call from a telemarketer on a different continent, urged the person answering the phone to just press 1, or 2, or whatever....
Come to find out, their telephone company charged them the full price of the long distance call (because I assume they connected to an ADAD machine - Automatic Dial and Answer - or something like that), and the damned machine owuldn't release their phone line for a full 3 minutes.
Result, they got a bill for $2,500.00 from the telephone company, who based sticking to their guns on the fact that it was the custyomer who had elected to push the button.
Why this creep is calling people in Canada, is beyond me. There are 316,000,000 people in the USA and surely, that is a sufficiently large market for them!
Guess what??? If yo push 1 to be removed from their list, you have now just told the scammers that your number is an active one. You will now be getting more calls because they will sell your confirmed good number to other scammers. People be smart. Just block or quit answering these calls. It doesn't help you at all.