On Thu, Apr 5, 2018 at 11:12 AM, Brian <br...@nc-ct.net> wrote: > On Thu, 2018-04-05 at 07:55 -0700, Brian Kantor wrote: > > > So the logical conclusion is that caller ID is useless as an > > anti-vspam measure and the situation is hopeless, so the only > > solution is to not personally answer the phone at all -- let voice > > mail take a message. > > Pretty much. We've received calls here with the CID displaying as our > own info, and others coming up as a neighbor's number. Some even appear > as law enforcement when they're scammers looking for donations to > charities that don't exist. I suppose if you're going to commit one > crime, go for broke. > > > This is what I have adopted on my personal landline. With the > > ringers disconnected. Although I get probably a half-dozen incoming > > calls a day, perhaps one a week will leave a message. Most of those > > messages are recorded announcements that started playing even before > > the voicemail greeting finished. > > I've been enjoying quiet on a VoIP line with asterisk. Those who I > know/expect/desire calls from I can route them directly to my extension, > those others get the IVR. It works parallel to IP routing. I can go a > few days without hearing my phone ring yet my logs are filled with > spammers/telemarketing calls. Robo-dialers have no clue which extension > a human may be at, and I've been doing this for over 15 years with great > success. With a digium wildcard, this can work for POTS lines as well. > > >
A simple "Thank you for calling the line of $NAME. To prove you are not a robot press 1". That seems to weed out most of them.