I answered because "THATS WHY I HAVE A PHONE" but mostly because I'm expecting a call from my daughter in the Air Force, being deployed over seas I never know what my caller ID will be. Anyway, they asked if I voted in the last election and I told them it was none of their business, they asked me to spell my very simple name, I also told them if they knew me they would know how to spell my name and hung up. It's so sad that I can't use my own phone without being blasted with call from God knows who! I hardly ever got a call until I placed my name on the so-called do not call list...!!!
What boggles my mind is the large number of otherwise intelligent people who answer these calls! This should be your rule from now on: If I don't know who is calling me on MY phone, I will NOT answer. Simple as that, folks, if it's really legit/ important/ or your brother-in-law, they can leave a message and you can call them back. Duh.
A good summary of the situation. I guess that there is no solution to annoying calls beyond CID for the present. After all, we are victims of our own constitutional "Freedom of Speech".
As we all know, the DNC list is a joke. Non-profit organizations and charities are not bound by it; scammers ignore it. Blocking scammers' calls works to an extent because (1) most phone systems limit the number of numbers you can block and (2) these scammers use more than one number. You can put your phone in "Do Not Disturb" mode and let calls go to voice mail, although that can result in delays seeing important calls. You can let the phone ring during a scam call, but that interrupts you. You can pick up the call and then disconnect it immediately; that's what we generally do.