Unfortunately, automated IVR systems have become difficult to quickly spot thanks to Google Machine Learning based NLP, and your telecom company still pays the

Unfortunately, automated IVR systems have become difficult to quickly spot thanks to Google Machine Learning based NLP, and your telecom company still pays the robocall campaign even if you never answer due to how the legacy phone systems were designed. Additionally, while the VoIP based phone centers boxes allowed inexpensive/free long distance, they also provided the unscrupulous unlimited outbound traffic to cold-call users. Even if your telecom only pays fractions of a penny to receive the call, a third-world teenagers computer time is likely worth far less than you'd guess. ;-) While the number-filters on modern smart-phones are fairly good (origin spoofing is illegal), these devices still suffer from other problems like app lamer-ware stripping contact lists (is your "cloud backup" on by default?).