Feb 17, 2016
As daunting as it may seem, it's not impossible to beat these pests. But it takes patience and tolerance for--you said it--letting the phone ring. Many don't make the phone ring off the hook. Four, five times and they give up. From personal experience, I was getting slammed on a daily basis by junk callers. I did exactly what I said starting in 14 and waited when the calls came. I've gone entire weeks without a single call on my landline several times. Seldom do I get more than one a day, and many of the numbers rarely call again. It's a huge improvement from the 10-15 a day I was getting. Of course the scammers (unless it's fake IRS threats) won't leave messages. Outside of finding out your number works, they gain nothing leaving them. Unless you have personal and financial information included in your outgoing message, they can't rip off an answering machine. You lessen 'business' for them by not taking their bait--answering unknown calls. If you're unable to do without the machine, perhaps a call blocker would be a good addition.