I don’t know about you, but I almost never pick up a phone call from a number I don’t know. I’d rather listen to a voicemail than listen to spam. However, recently I’ve been trying something new.

I actually do pick up, then I immediately hit the mute button and the speaker button. So far I’ve only had a callback once from someone who was trying to contact me, because the call wasn’t a spam. And one other time I heard a questioning ‘Hello?’ and responded.

Every other call has been silence and then a click to end the call. I think it’s the muting of the call that does the trick. The auto-callers the spammers use waits to hear a greeting to know they have a person online. I don’t get a call back, and I don’t have to listen to the start of a spam message… and hopefully my number is deemed as a bad line, whereas responding and hanging up is confirmation that they have a ‘live one’ to call again.

The call is still an annoyance, but at least it’s less of one and also less rewarding for the spammer.