Thank you so very much for the time and effort you contribute to 800Notes. Your research is good. Your advice is good. Your contributions are the best of net community involvement. Keep it up.
For the rest of us, No, the FED, FCC or FTC or what ever government agency is not conspiring with nor benefiting from the scam-spams. Yes, the federal government is ineffective to chasing these guys. Few are nabbed, and most go hide. The $$$$ (who knows how much in aggregate) is so defuse per capita that there is no "stuck pig" group influential enough to pressure congressmen, senators, or regulatory agency. Besides, in comparison to ISAS, ebola, Ukraine, Palestine, and poverty in the USA, spam callers have a low priority. Still, I have have angry thoughts each time a jerk rings the phone, Call blocking (I use Digitone 10 on my wireline, it chokes them after they call once). Of course the spam callers change numbers, but for a while I get'em.
I did not recognize the number on my cell phone (217 area code). I did not want to use my daytime minutes so I didn't answer. They did not leave a message.
I called the number back on my work phone (208 area code). It rang 13x before my phone service disconnected the call.