and they go onto the ‘next’ provider, or sign up as a different customer or have multiple accounts and ration accordingly. I doubt you would be a successful scammer looking at things as an honest person 
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And that it why scammers are located outside of Australia. We only have a few telcos in Australia. Telstra, Optus and TPG. You have limited options.
You should survey the international VOIP services if you are interested in ‘joining up’. If at the end of that survey you decide to join the dark side, it wasn’t me.
I thought another way is to tell them to take me off tbe calling list if politely done seems to work. I really cannot stand how they over talk. I just usually say take me off the call list.
That will not work. It is strange that they waste call after call to places that they ought to realise will not be productive. I have had hundred of these calls and they have never got a thing out of me but they do not learn.
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It wasn’t like it before. Leadership is lousy like everything. Anyway. I never open so called sms yhey go the spam. And also so called dead mobile numbers.
I was going to ask how many calls people are getting since I recently had one and that is the first in four years and here you are getting hundreds. I may have had a couple since? I usually don’t answer calls when I don’t recognise the number, I call back later and if it doesn’t ring etc I block the number. My scam calls don’t warrant doing anything.
We’d typically receive one or two a week, and sometimes more. Occasionally there are weeks with none.
I’ve found that there is no need to call back a number that is not recognised. Most genuine callers will leave a message and their number. Those that do not are most likely selling something or hopeful of a scam.
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My iPhone will say No ID if the number that’s calling isn’t in my phone book. I don’t pick-up and if there’s no message I don’t call back.
Yesterday I’ve been notified of two calls that were ‘silenced’ and a text message said to report as junk.
I’m grateful for this new (to me) service, I don’t even have to hear the phone ringing, the scammers must be well known!
Looking up the phone numbers wasn’t of much help and as we have learned from other posters, it’s really useless!
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I used to keep a list of spam numbers and block them, but when it grew to over 400 numbers I decided to do away with that idea.
I get as many as 6 spam/scam/telesales calls each day.
Instead, I don’t answer calls from numbers I don’t recognize. If the caller really wants to speak to me, they will leave a voicemail.
An alternative trick is to pick up the call, BUT DON’T SAY ANYTHING. Keep absolutely quiet.
If it’s a scam or a telesales caller, chances are they are using a robocaller, a machine which waits until it hears your voice, then passes you onto a human, whose job is to scam you.
If the machine doesn’t hear your voice within about 4 seconds, it auto hangs up with a short beep.
that is how you can tell you were called by a machine, and by not speaking to it, you have refused to take the bait, and have avoided a telesales call or scam caller.
BB
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Doing this possibly has caused…
The technology they use will know the call was answered (verify it is an active number) and added to an active list to keep calling. The best thing to do is not to answer, hoping that that particular spammer/scammer calling system thinks your number is an inactive number. The best one hopes is their technology adds it to a list not to call, so that it can concentrate on calling active numbers (calls which have been answered in the past) where their is a higher likelihood of success. Hence, answering even if one is ‘silent’ will only generate more calls. If they share/sell on their active list to other scammer, scam calls will multiply.
The above applies to email and text scammers/spammers. As soon as their contact is responded to, they know the text number/email address is active…and as a result…more texts/emails are sent your way.
Advice is
-
do not answer a phone call (this verifies the number is active)
-
do not reply to a spam/scam email or text (this verifies the email address/number is active)
-
do not hit any links in a spam email or text, including unsubscribe links (many of these links are to verify the email address/number is active)
Doing any of the above will only encourage more spam/scams to come your way, as they know your number/email address is active. Scammers/spammers live in the hope that one day, one of their scams/spams will be successful…and will continue to persist while they know a number/email address is active.
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While it doesn’t actually help any Australian victim (whether of a scam or just of having their time wasted), I found the following program interesting: https://iview.abc.net.au/show/spying-on-the-scammers
It explains, given the sheer amount of money potentially available, and other factors, why this is still happening.
I agree with your logic but I like to waste a bit of their time. While I am wasting their time, they are not successfully scamming someone else. So it’s a community service really. 
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Answering the call does tell the caller that the number is “active”,…BUT not answering the call does NOT have the opposite effect. It only tells the caller that you are not answering at that particular time.
If the number was not “active” the caller would get a “number not in service” recorded message.
I have become aware that some government departments will call you from what shows up on my phone as “unknown number”. I’ve had this happen recently. I picked up a call from “unknown number”. I remained silent, expecting the call to auto cut off after a few seconds. But the call did not cut off, and I waited some more until the caller eventually spoke, and asked for me by name.
Rather than confirming my name or saying “yes” I challenged them to identify themselves, which they did, and it turned out to be an important call from TAFE.
So the lesson here is:
if you pick up the call, wait for them to speak first.
Do NOT confirm your identity or say “yes” .
Challenge the caller to identify themselves before you engage them any further.
If you are not satisfied as to their identity, or your need to speak to them, hang up immediately.
Do not engage a scammer or spammer - they are trained to manipulate you. Do not let them get their foot in the door.
BB
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This explains why not to answer the call…
Active means the line is answered, not that the line exists or will ring. If they know you answer the call (even if you say nothing), their calling systems know that the number which was just called will be answered. Not answering, their calling system registers the number isn’t answered. It is more profitable for their scams to keep calling numbers which answer, not those that don’t. Answering has an undesirable effect, it will result in a greater number of scam calls.
In summary and as outlined above… answering a call
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I, along with millions of other Australians, am currently working from home for at least part of my week. This means that all calls to my office number are diverted to my mobile phone, and I need to continue to act professionally in dealing with work-related issues.
It is not obvious to me whether calls are coming via the office or directly to my number. I am lucky in that very few people ring me from work, but last week I received a call from a client and was (a little) concerned that I did not state where I was working when answering the phone. To me this feels unprofessional.
There is no easy solution to this, although maybe I will eventually figure out a way to identify calls diverted from work. Answering with “Hello, [name] speaking” is adequate for personal calls but feels inadequate for the office - regardless of how cheerfully I say it.
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Except when there is no caller ID and number displayed?
We have more than one family member whose phone number is not displayed when they call. They may have a good reason for doing so.
I’ve also a short list of Government service providers who will return a call, but cannot leave a call back number. If one does not answer the opportunity is lost and you go back into the queue.
Unfortunately one size does not fit all circumstances all the time.
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Silent numbers as indicated in the ACMA website have no effect. Robocall systems don’t use phone book listing and cycle through phone numbers until one is active/answered. Having a silent number will have no impact on scam calls being received.
Caller IDs may have some benefit if one doesn’t want the caller to know what their phone number is (e.g. ringing up a organisation which is likely to use the number for telemarketing), but, having one’s own caller ID hidden as indicated by the ACMA will have no effect on scam calls being received.
If one is deciding to answer a call, as indicated in multiple posts and websites with advice, if you don’t recognise the number don’t answer it.
If the call id comes up as a private number, it is very easy to fix for land lines, as outlined in an earlier post. Invest in an answering machine, set it to answer after 9-12 rings (which is often the time robocall systems are set to hang up and try another number) and let those numbers which have no number be answered by the answering machine. Also let friends and family who chose to turn off their caller ID, to start leaving a message and you will answer when you know who they are.
For mobiles, set up your voice message so that any caller with a withheld caller id can leave a message.
One size can very easily fit all. If one choses to answer unknown numbers or play games with scammers, they will invite far more scam calls.
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I think you missed my point. Per the ACMA link.
Show your silent number
If you have a silent phone number, it will not show up on the phone you call (except for the emergency call service).
Your telco automatically bars your silent number from showing up on a phone you call.
I’m not complaining or looking to change. Simply pointing out one explanation of why an incoming call may not show an ID-number, and why I generally choose to answer these calls. IE Because that’s the choice of some important family members who have unlisted services, and whose thinking I’m not about to change. Of interest to some I have yet to receive a scam call that does not have a number displayed. Sample of one household. There may be more than one of us out there with similar thinking that find the same.
For those in business I can empathise with all those calling customers who spend a large number of calls speaking to an answering service or device. Those of us who have placed a call back with our RSP/ISP or Telco due to a long queue will know that the ID of the call back is not assured. By exception, there are calls that I would answer because I’m expecting one. Sometimes there are follow up calls the next day. One can save a great amount of time, and delay by answering with a simple ‘hello’ and waiting for the caller to speak next.
It’s to our own inconvenience if we don’t.
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Our experience with the Qld Hospital service is that their calls are unidentified number calls. If we don’t answer we will miss important Telehealth services and rescheduled appointment offers.
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Where is the fun in that? I find that I can manipulate them much more and tell them nothing useful of factual. I have yet to meet one who I would consider a reasonably efficient conman or salesperson. Those who call me are reading from a script in a boiler room and show not a hint of creativity. These are not highly trained at all.
We read stories in the media about the tenacious conman who defrauded thousands out of some poor victim. These are the exception and often they work on hot leads not cold calls. Even then for them to get hold of you they need a hook.
One common hook is greed. How is it possible that the Nigerian scam has been working for years and will continue to work? As Barnum put it “there is one born every minute”. He meant suckers. Why do people even listen to the Nigerian scam? Greed. Greed makes them suckers. They imagine getting something for nothing.
Let me give an example of a really good con. I was walking down a suburban street and a car pulls up. There is a three-piece-suited handsome young man behind the wheel who introduces himself and we chat. He mentions that he is all packed up after a lengthy business trip as he is flying out that afternoon. So sad the product samples he is carrying are over his weight limit. He shows me some nice looking leather coats and quotes very low prices for them. About here he is getting out of the car and coming round to help me into a coat and I say don’t bother, it was nice meeting him and I have to go to my next job.
Reading about this you say to yourself “no way he is getting my money”. But he is so smooth, so engaging and here is a great deal, you can take advantage of his predicament and get some very nice gear very cheap. Except the coats are either stolen or are good copies with big name labels in them and the smooth young man is taking advantage of you.
Another hook is fear; so we have the ATO scams threatening your arrest of the NBN is going to cut off your service.
There are sophisticated scams that take many contacts, extract your personal details, gain your confidence and steal much money but most of the calls you get will be much simpler phishing expeditions or attempts to get you to allow them to install malware.
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