I like to answer the phone, say “please hold” then put my headphones up to the phone. This is great because it triggers whatever automated system they have to get active callers on the line, and wastes the time of a real human, who might realize what’s going on and prevent the system from calling my number again to begin with.

> Here's what does work (in my experience): answer the call, but say nothing, heck, mute your phone mic if you have to. Just give them silence.

I don't get that many spam calls, but what I do when I get one varies from answering and immediately hanging up to doing what you suggested (which usually results in them disconnecting after about 5 seconds). Occasionally, I've done things like answering the call and snapping my fingers in the receiver instead of saying "hello" and that usually results in an immediate disconnect.

I'm not sure if any of those things have affected the volume of spam calls I receive though.

I used to work in tech at a call center and that would confuse the auto-dialer software. It's designed to know a person and designed to know voicemail. But just silence is a new one! Good strategy.

> Unfortunately it doesn't work that way, the ones that DO give you the option to be 'do not call' will forward your number to other spammers, actually increasing the spam calls you get. Do not ask them to put you on the d-n-c list!

Anybody legitimate that's not true. But it's so easy to spoof your number that there are a lot of bad actors.

Are you talking about internal Do Not Call lists or the actual Federal Do Not Call list? Because I used to have that issue with credit card companies, random loan spammers, and such with both mail and phone call spam. I signed up for the list with a 100% opt-out option and just like it promised, within 3 months, the offers stopped coming in.

That being said, I also try to be pretty careful about putting my phone number out there, taking time to judge when a real phone number is needed or not, and asking pretty specifically for what reason a company wants my phone number and often just ignoring the service if an adequate reason isn't given.

Since I've moved abroad, I have apparently been less careful and I occasionally get calls and texts on my foreign sim, and I must have given my email out as there are suddenly lots of hot-singles looking for me, but it is 100% related to my current region, whereas before my Spam folder sat untouched.

Both really. Companies face fines if they keep calling people after they request to be put on a do not call list so it's a big deal. That's how I remember my experience at a call center anyway.

Hey this is exactly what I do! Answer and then mute immediately. Any real person will just say "hello?" and the bots get confused and just hang up (and don't call back). I get 1 spam call every 2 months maybe.