“When I pick up my home phone, I answer quickly. If I do not get a reply within one second, I hang up. That pretty much traps out the phone bank marketers.”
That used to work, combined with hitting the # button furiously during the short gap (messed up their digital database to show a nonworking number or something). Now, the very instant I pick up, it’s Bridget or Carla from Credit Card Services or some such thing. Pisses me off to no end. My mother is having serious health issues out of state and the family communites via landline phone. These harassing calls throw off your mental balance for a moment.
And the National Do Not Call List is a joke. Does it even still exist?
Down here in laid back Georgia (ha ha) probably my phone company’s interconnections (NOT AT&T) things move a little slower, and I’m thankful for it.
I still have an old device that connects to the line that gives that special tone that indicates the number is out of service, etc. that will put most any computer generated call into the next dial number.
I used it at my other house but haven’t gotten around to putting on my phone yet to see if it still works.