Recently I've been getting a rash of phone solicitation or outright attempts at extortion, so I Thought you might like to have some tools to defend yourself too. First, blocking anonymous caller id is a feature that forces the caller to enable caller-id which then can be recognized at your end. Doesn't work 100% of the time as some get through as 'out-of-area', 'unknown', or even just 'California'. But even then, at least the phone number is visible and the area code is a big tip-off Second, use call screening feature on your answering machine -- you get to listen without picking up the phone. If it's Mom or your boy/girl friend just pickup. Otherwise, the solicitators are forced to leave a message -- ligit businesses will but bogus callers never do Third, (you'll love this), Google is your friend -- just enter the phone number of the offender -- you'll get a list of users complaining re that number. typical sites supporting these complaints are http://whocallsme.com/ http://800notes.com/ both have a direct lookup capability
