I agree with ravencajun about labeling them as junk before deleting from your Inbox: that is helpful. I only need to do this infrequently though, as the Hotmail filters seem to correctly place this stuff in the Junk folder about 99% of the time.

I've actually had a similar idea to yours cynic, but with a slight change that might actually make the solution workable. Whenever a call is received, the recipient has the option of hanging up and dialing similar to *69 (I'll call it *96) which would cause some amount (say 50 cents) to be added to the callers bill, and that amount would be credited to the recipient's bill. Think about it. You've just got a call from 'Bridget at card services" or from "Microsoft" or from some annoying survey or from the opposing political party regarding their reprehensible candidate, and rather than merely hanging up and walking away silently fuming (like I did moments ago in the middle of writing this message) Instead imagine hanging up, dialing *96 and walking away slightly smirking because you've actually affected the annoying caller, and your phone bill will be slightly smaller this month. Imagine the smile when you think, "Five more of them, and this month is free!" The details of the plan would need some careful thought to avoid creating a new mode of abuse wherein some scammer calls you leaving a message saying "Its an emergency, call me back at this number ASAP" and then when you do, they *96 you and garner 50 cents from you. Maybe each caller gets a handful of *96 calls in a given month before they are debited. Or perhaps the caller is notified that the recipient has done a *96, and the caller has the option of dialing *97 and negating the charge back, but only a couple of times a month. It would take decision at the Federal level to force the phone companies to implement this, since I'm sure they'll fight it tooth and nail. Furthermore the telemarketing industry will surely claim it would affect their business, and jobs of all the poor schlubs they employ, but ... duh, that's the entire point of the measure. The one issue I see with the measure is that it would be so effective, that perhaps within a year of being implemented, the need for it and the use of it would drop to near zero. (Note if a lawmaker reads this and wants to implement this scheme, I'll gladly license the design for a meager 1/100th of a cent per call that is *96'ed :-)

I have a landline that I literally never answer. I have the ringer turned off on it. But it's hooked up to an answering machine, so on the rare chance it's a legitimate caller they can leave a message. If I see the answering machine light blinking then I'll listen to the message. One day I had a message from an IRATE elderly gentleman. He was furious and demanding to know why I'd been calling him several times a day and not leaving a message. Obviously some delightful company was spoofing my number and using it as a "local" number to try to get people to answer. That gentleman called me back a few more times and left scary/angry messages on my phone. Unfortunately his caller id was blocked, so I had no way of knowing who he was. However he was getting so irate in his messages to me I almost called the cops. If you google my home phone number it comes up with my name and address, even though allegedly my number is private. (Thank you America for stripping away any hopes of privacy anymore.) I was starting to get concerned this guy was just going to show up at my door! So I turned the ringer on and hoped he'd call again. Fortunately/unfortunately that evening he did, so I answered and he UNLOADED on me. It took every ounce in me to calmly explain my number was being spoofed and I swear no one from this house is calling you. I told him if he didn't believe me, I'd really like to call the police together and file a report. He finally calmed down and almost ended up apologizing to me. Over the next few days I got a few more messages from people wondering why I was calling them and not leaving a message. Charming. So I changed my outgoing message, to alert callers to the fact my number was being spoofed and I swear it's not me calling you. TL;DR. I DESPISE telemarketers.

My husband gets as many as 30 calls a day, from all over the country. I suspect it is because he is job hunting online and isn't savvy about what sites he visits and gives out his contact information to. He gets dozens of e-mails per day too and lots of junk mail. He can't even keep up with deleting them. I've tried to get him to unsubscribe and mark spam but he doesn't. His phone is full of apps that give him pop ups, and is almost unusable at this point. He can't be bothered but the constant phone ringing bothers me. Now my phone has started in with it. I suspect I got fooled by phone number cloning to answer once or twice and now my number is making the rounds. This is getting close to bad science fiction . . .