Thank you! That is one of the most concise & accurate explanations I've seen on here! The only thing that people like us can do is keep preaching the "DO NOT HAVE ANY CONVERSATIONS WITH THESE PEOPLE" litany & hope that, eventually, all will know this & this phone-scam business will die out. But we have a long way to go!
I have been haranguing my own land-line company for some time about these nuisance calls because their call blocking system that we're supposed to use from our own phones is useless --- there are so many protective orders in place that these numbers are more protected than we are! We need to all harass our own communication companies to make them DO something constructive about this plague --- it should be as simple to block a call on your land-line as it is on your cell phone.
Meanwhile, our lovely Senate, having absolutely no other problems whatsoever to deal with, have just passed a bill (on Monday, March 27) that whoever wants a list of customer numbers can buy them with no difficulty whatsoever and, basically, call anyone whenever & however many times they want, with no recourse for us to complain about lack of telephone privacy. And since that bill was passed, our home's nuisance call quotient has gone up by 200% --- from 8 or 9 unwanted calls a day to more like 18! Isn't that adorable? Aren't you just delighted over all the senators and representatives you've elected into office, knowing that they're looking out for you, at least until someone offers them money not to? You all think they don't get kickbacks from this sort of legislation? In that case, there's a bridge over in Brooklyn I'd like to sell you! (This last bit is not directed at you, Maverick, because I know that you know! This is directed at all the other readers on here who maybe don't know what a "stacked deck" we're living in!)