That works well but can be dangerous as it was for me a number of years ago. There are a lot of situations when sending **ALL** numbers not in your contact list directly to voice mail could be at the least bad and at most dangerous especially in the middle of the night. One has to seriously consider all the ramifications of that before doing it like family health, older relatives, kids etc etc No one can have every possible emergency call phone number in their contact list.

And NEVER trust any "area codes"....don't even answer calls from your "home" area ...

Everyone must watch
Scammer Payback on YouTube.
He had lots of videos.
This guy is great.
He actually gets into the hackers system and reeks havoc deleting their files and wasting their time.

I had a phone call like that about a year ago. I decided to play with him. His name was Tommy and he needed money.

Tommy: Grandma can you help me? I'm in trouble.
Me: Why don't you call your dad?
Tommy: I can't, he'll get really mad at me.
Me: Well, ask you mom.
Tommy: I can't, she'll tell my dad.
Me: Tommy, I have a question for you.
Tommy: What grandma?
Me: I never had children, so how can you be my grandson?
Tommy: You just wasted my time.

Then he hung up on me. That was a lot of fun!

I don't pick up unknown calls, but if I did and it is a scammer... some of these responses are cute and silly but I'd just take the quickest 1-click response and waste as little of my time as possible.

Scam
 

I never answer the phone from anyone I do not know. If it is important, a person can leave a message. This has cut my unknown number calls a lot. They never leave a message. When someone answers the scammers' calls, they will keep calling even if you hang up on them.

Good samaritan
 

thank you

Up the hershey highway
 

a scammer with an indian asian accent was on our car speaker phone pretending to be an irs agent threatening imprisonment. We caught onto the scam within 30 seconds and 4 people in the car mercilessly berated his culture, family especially his mom and dad. No matter what sex toy was going to be used on his family he kept reading from the script. They fear their bosses more than our legal system

You can also set a specific ring tones for your favorite contacts and one for all others. Ignore the rest.

That seems like an incredibly childish way to respond to a scammer. I mean like 6th grade stuff. There are LOTS of ways to deal with a scammer. Having four of your pals in a car revert to "ur mom" memes is one of the more infantile options and doesn't speak well of the carload of people at all.

There is a proper etiquette for how to respond to someone lying to me and trying to steal my money?

I honestly don’t understand why anybody would send money to people they don’t know these scams have been around for years I’ve heard of them for many years I’ve heard of them in other state. Do not send money over the phone do not ever give anybody your personal information over the Internet or the phone. If you are concerned tell them you need to make some phone calls have them call you back in a couple hours and do your own investigation do not send your money. Nothing new here

If they’re not on my contact list or if a name comes up & I don’t know them l never answer, NEVER. Because these callers always have a way to keep you talking.

Personally I think I would of hung up immediately & called the hospital instead of talking to a want a be lawyer about his bond fees. My children & grandchildren are more important than lawyer fees or bonds. This scam has been going around for at least 10 yrs.

Not sure really, but I did know within a few seconds. Maybe his low-key tone until he decided I have a grandson; then he morphed into the sniveling.

WIth all his weeping and wailing, I wanted to string him along in the present, asking 'Where are you now?' and 'Which hospital were you treated in?' His ignoring these questions validated my initial impression that this was a scam.

Even simpler, I could have said 'Grandson? What grandson? I don't have a grandson....' But that would have ended the call sooner than I was ready toi.

What hospital would you have called? Please reread what I wrote: You missed the point that I DID ask him at what hospital he was treated, and his failure to answer this and other questions in the present continued to validated that this was a scam. He was a pretty good actor; asking him questions like his mother's maiden name and so forth would have put him on to my recognition that he was a scammer.

You're welcome. My intention was to be able to give as much information as I could to others in my position (potential recipients of the scam) AND to those who might even remotely be in a position to do anything. I knew this was not an issue for the Sheriff, but I didn't think of contacting Seniors Versus Crime, as the Sheriff's office suggested. We ordinarily never answer unknown calls, instead letting them either hang up or leaving a voice mail message. This was an exception as we have family members traveling who could be calling from anywhere.

In retrospect I'm sorry I ended the scam when I did by refusing 'to keep the incident between us.' Who knows what further information I may have been able to pick up—maybe all useless information—or maybe not. At one time I was scammed involving two banks; when the dust settled one bank recognized the injustice and made good on it, while the other bank ... well ... I will post the story on ToTV at some point.