I’ve taken up the practice of just not answering the phone. Nothing good ever comes of it.

If it’s important, they’ll leave a voice mail and I can call them back.

A direct answer to your question, and depending on the cultures of where you live, you could say something like Hello, whom do I have the pleasure of speaking with? But that's very southern, so I could see many people not feeling that. I say Howdy, what may I do for you today?... Which I now recognize is also southern... But there's a lot of things you could say that distract from identifying yourself.

Along the topics others are replying with, I also don't answer calls usually, and have a call blocker so I'm only notified if someone from my contacts list is calling or if they are recognized by my network carrier as a verified business. Since businesses can also be spoofed, I still don't give any information and find out why they are calling, then politely hang up and call back myself, after first verifying the number in about to call is actually associated with the business.

My apartment has almost no phone signal so I started leaving my phone on airplane mode. Best decision I've ever made, it's been like this for 6 months now without issues. With friends and family I call through facetime/whatsapp/etc. anyway.

It also makes the battery last twice as long.

Doesn’t airplane mode also turn off the WiFi radio? Maybe it depends on the phone. But if it does, how can you use WhatsApp, etc.?

You can turn WiFi back on.

Haha. I actually knew that and have done it, but forgot that it was possible. Thanks.

Agreed - As a minimum if the caller has no caller ID I don't answer unless I'm expecting such a call. If I answer the phone and get a long pause or clicks before I'm talking to someone, I'm very dubious of who I'm talking to and get their name and phone number so I can do quick background check and call them back.

With that said, I almost got duped by a good samaritan debit card scam about 20 years ago in Toronto.

Yes, but then they do the same and it is endless phone tag which usually ends in "you can email me at blaa."

The telephone is broken.

Seriously, for the vast majority of people, the number of legitimately urgent calls from strangers is going to be vanishingly small. Why even bother answering?

Credit card fraud is not urgent unless maybe you know your card has been deactivated. They can leave a quick message if your relative is in the hospital or whatever.

Today, for sure, the phone is dead. But it could come back.

Roadkill Cafe, you kill it, we grill it, how can I help you?

Drinkwine Mortuary, You stab 'em, we slab 'em!

"Hello" — Thomas Edison

"Ahoy" — Alexander Graham Bell

I've often answered calls from unknown numbers with "This is Security" in my most formal voice. Nowadays, I don't answer unknown numbers at all.

Many people nowadays just answer 'Hello'. I do that and if I don't get a response after a few seconds I hang up.

Just stay silent until the other person speaks.

This is my MO for unknown numbers these days (which I only answer when I have a reasonable expectation of getting a call from a new contact). Automated systems will just disconnect when they think they got a dead line. Humans will go, "uh, hello?"

I started doing this a few months ago, and the number of spam calls I've gotten from certain area codes that used to call me without fail at least three times a day has dropped considerably.

I've had good results from answering spam calls, following the prompt to get a human to "resolve this matter with the IRS" or talk to "Visa and Mastercard customer service" and just screaming into the phone when they come on the line.

Seems to get me on a "don't call this number" list after a few goes.

I just go with "Hello?".

I also don't mind confirming my name. But I try to never say "yes" or "no" when they ask if something is right, I respond with "That is correct" or "That is not correct". That may be me being too paranoid of people editing the conversation to make it look like I agreed to something I didn't.

There was some point where I was getting a call that claimed to be a collection agency trying to collect on a DirectTV bill. I've never had DirectTV. They kept trying to get me to confirm an address, I kept informing them that I've never had DirectTV. They would usually hang up when I would press them on who their employer was. They often made the mistake of calling during my commute when I lived roughly an hour away from my place. So, you know, I had the time to kill.

> But I try to never say "yes" or "no" when they ask if something is right, I respond with "That is correct" or "That is not correct". That may be me being too paranoid of people editing the conversation to make it look like I agreed to something I didn't.

It's not overly paranoid. https://www.ag.state.mn.us/consumer/Publications/CanYouHearM...

> The details of this scam vary, but it always begins with a call, usually from a telephone number that appears to be local. When the person answers the call, the scam artist tries to get the person to say “yes”—most often by asking, “Can you hear me?,” “Is this the lady of the house?,” or a similar question. By responding “yes,” people notify robo-callers that their number is an active telephone number that can be sold to other telemarketers for a higher price. This then leads to more unwanted calls.

> In some cases, the caller may record the person saying “yes.” Scam artists may be able to use a recorded “yes” to claim that the person authorized charges to his or her credit card or account.

Used to be used a whole bunch for https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cramming_(fraud) back in the days when you could subscribe to things via your phone bill.

Good to know, I guess. On some level.

I've probably read something similar at some point, made the change, and forgot the source that made me wary of it. Cutting the ends of the roast as it were.

> Any suggestion on how I should politely and professionally answer a call without giving away my identity?

I use "hello". It's pretty rude compared to how I was raised, but it's also the only way to not give scam calls the ammo they need to mess with me. So I can live with rude.

Let it go to voicemail, and have your voicemail greeting say "please send me an email instead".

If I don't recognize the #, "Tech. Support, do you have a Contract # or Incident #?". Backed by a brusque "very busy professional, required to bill his hours" attitude. Human cold callers often identify with that - enough to either end the call fast, or to try no "hooks" to keep me on the line when I end it.

I'm hostile to anyone who calls me until they deserve otherwise. Just "hello", "mhmm", "mnnn" kind of grunts. Kind of sad but 95% of phone calls that I don't know are from scammers/telemarketers.

Many years ago, I changed to simply using "Yes, hello?"

Hello?

First name only isn't that bad, right?

Drop the call and send an SMS saying "Busy now, please let me know when it would be best to call you back"