Washington Post [unpaywalled]: “The first rule of avoiding scam calls is to never answer unknown numbers, and even some known ones. Curious? Bored? Worried it’s an emergency? Wait the extra minute it takes for the call to go to voice mail, then decide if it’s legitimate. Unfortunately, every year hundreds of thousands of people in the United States either ignore that golden rule or are tricked into answering. According to the Federal Trade Commission, people lost $851 million to phone scams in 2023. After email, phone scams are the most common fraud method reported to the FTC…”

See also Tom’s Guide: Google just launched a new tool to help you identify scam phone calls . “The Google Phone app already has a directory feature, offering caller ID for numbers that you don’t already have in your contacts list. In my experience these are often tied to businesses or contractors, rather than personal numbers. So what do you do if you have a random unidentified number trying to get through to you? You use the new Lookup button.”