Best thing I ever did for myself was to get a Google Voice number in an area code I've never lived in. A lot of these fake calls rely on people assuming "local

Best thing I ever did for myself was to get a Google Voice number in an area code I've never lived in. A lot of these fake calls rely on people assuming "local number = neighbor" kind of mentality which rarely comes into play these days as we're much more mobile than we used to be. Plus area code splits, separate area codes for cell vs landline services becoming increasingly common. If my GV number were: AAA-BBB-CCCC And my actual home area code is DDD-EEE-FFFF Any and all numbers from AAA-BBB-xxxx can be ignored. I never answer calls that come in on my cell carrier provided number, so that eliminates that issue. Silent ring, no forward to voicemail. Anything left, about 95% of the time, tends to be legit. With regional calling being a thing of the past and most cell plans being unlimited text and talk, it makes very little sense to keep a local number. Especially now as it's SOP for roboscammers to fake Caller ID and try to match the first 6 of your 10 digits.