I have learned so much in the last three years of all the evils of criminal fraud perpetrated over the phone. Makes using the Internet daily seem benign in comparison. Though in most cases it's the Internet itself which has given me so much grief regarding incoming telephone calls. The whole world has access to my relative age, location and a phone number in the white pages.
Criminals love us old folks. We're taken for granted to be the most gullible. Then factor in all the latest technologies that favor the criminals. That they can choose to make their caller id anonymous, or simply "spoof" it entirely. Where they make it appear as a legitimate business or person, and corresponding phone number. Yet in reality they are someone completely different, with a different number. That only your phone company can actually ascertain in the event of a criminal investigation or customer request. (Even if you ask for the information to be determined, your provider can only give the info to law enforcement and not the customer in the US.)
I live alone with virtually no social contacts. So when my phone rings, it's almost a 99% chance that it's one or two persons tops. (I rarely get calls from businesses for which I am their customer.) About three years ago my phone began ringing off the hook. Unknown parties, unknown businesses and purely anonymous callers. WTF?
You name the scam, and they've tried to get to me. The secret? Pretty damn simple. I NEVER, EVER made actual contact with them. I use caller id not to tell me who is calling, but who isn't calling. 
And know absolutely that neither criminals or even legitimate businesses are the least intimidated by the federal no-call list. It's worthless. I've had representatives of the FTC and the state Attorney General's office admit as such.
Some time ago when this really began to frustrate me with the number of calls, I was able to access my phone data base through my provider, and started logging how often the calls would come in. And perhaps most importantly, I began to access a free online service ("Mr. Number"*) which is an open database that allows people to report such callers. The service quantifies how frequent they call people, and also allows public input of the suspected nature of such calls. And it also will document if the calls are being spoofed, which in case the number you see on caller id is not the actual number calling you.
The bottom line is I discovered that for all these calls, sometimes a dozen a day at one point, virtually all of them were criminally fraudulent in nature. And if you read enough about it, you'll discover it's a massive problem these days where law enforcement can't seem to do much at all about it. Though in the US it appears Congress may be working on a partial solution allowing phone providers to police their own lines.
In the meantime though, I discovered a wildly successful USA service (NOMOROBO**)
that intercepts most robocalls. (In nearly every case such calls are used in conjunction with automatic dialing systems. Criminals don't call you personally. They're calling hundreds of numbers programmed in their database at the same time. It's why often when they do call you, they don't answer. They can't effectively multitask much like an old time switchboard operator who must choose manually what connection to pursue. Anyway, this service when implemented lets such calls ring once and then they just get rerouted to NOMROBO where they are terminated. As a consequence, the number of fraudulent and unwanted calls has dropped dramatically over time. Once criminals realize you use this service, they know that it is you who are taxing their resources rather than the reciprocal. So they drop you from their programming. It's not perfect, but these days I might have two or three such calls a week rather than 40 to 60. Though as far as I know this service is not accessible to those outside the USA.
Simple point: Don't ever answer a number you don't recognize. Run it through "Mr. Number" to verify your suspicions. In most cases they will likely be validated as criminal in nature. And just understand three things:
1) Career criminal fraudsters have all kinds of scams.
They can very convincing. But the key to their success is often
simply making contact with you. They're often "pros" at such things. Are you a "pro" at being able to dismiss them? Maybe. Maybe not. A primary reason NEVER to answer their calls. No matter how pissed off you may be, or how much you want to lash out at them.
2) That caller id information and numbers can be hopelessly spoofed, made to appear as someone else. If it's something critical and even financial in nature, you're better off not answering and calling them back using not the number of their caller id, but rather one you KNOW is legitimate.
3) In most cases these are criminals attempting to take from you. Keep in mind these are people most adept at getting mad- and
getting even. Don't indulge the possibility of being deliberately singled out for phone harassment. Don't interact with them at all. Keep the process of evading them impersonal.
*
http://mrnumber.com/
**
How does Nomorobo work?
