reister with the tps service..number is at the front of the phone book.. BUT can not do mobile numbers or calls from overseas...or..."market research" usually a dressed up sales pitch
or grab a just learning to talk toddler, and pass them the phone. Free entertainment for your child, well, it is until the person at the other end hangs up on them- the meanies.
Waste their time......'sorry dear, can you say that again? oh just a mo, the postman's knocked ....is it really free? ....sorry dear, I didn't quite catch that.......it sounds like just the ticket for my Ronnie, he's just out of jail next week, it will be a lovely surprise for him....I always did reckon two years for fraud was way over the top.....
Commercial callers are meant to check if your number is on the proscribed list. So once you are registered and some org. calls you ask for THEIR details with a view to reporting them, they soon go and the calls stop coming.
Register with the TPS, as redcrx says. This cuts out loads ...
Just lately I've been getting more and more international sales calls - they call from abroad specifically to avoid TPS legislation. The easiest way to avoid these is to have Caller ID, which will show an international call. Combined with an answering machine so you can monitor to make sure it wasn't some distant relative ...
I used to get a few "automated" calls. I just extended ring time on phone. Bit of a pain for family and friends but the automated ones don't happen any more.
My husband just asks the caller if they can ring back later as he's "just giving the missus a seeing to" ! There is usually an embarassed apology & they ring off!
Another time, when asked for a Mr. X, he told the caller that Mr.X had just died, same result!