I had the same problem a few months ago before I set up an automated virtual assistant to pre-screen calls[1]. It works with my existing phone number by forwarding all inbound calls to a small Linode box which plays an audio prompt and listens for specific keywords. (Whitelisted numbers get patched through immediately.)
Since I made that post, the system has filtered 100% of the spammers and 0% of my actual contacts. I think the non-bot spammers started to get sick of hearing my audio prompt because the number of spam calls that come in has dropped dramatically.
Since I made that post, the system has filtered 100% of the spammers and 0% of my actual contacts. I think the non-bot spammers started to get sick of hearing my audio prompt because the number of spam calls that come in has dropped dramatically.
[1] https://andrewchidden.com/defeating-spam-callers-with-speech...