TekSavvy → Re: [Home Phone] Do not call or dial #2030...

99% of all the "companies" that call you with a 1-800 number as their caller ID are doing some form of solicitation. Legitimate calls almost always have a proper local number in the caller ID field, as 1-800 numbers are usually just forwarders to those local numbers anyway.

800 numbers don't ring my phone, and automatically forward those calls to voicemail. The solicitors don't leave a message, and the 1% of legitimate calls with a 1-800 number for their caller ID can be called back after leaving a legitimate message.

The automated system used by RBC's security department to validate flagged purchases calls from a 1-800 number. Blocking or directing to voicemail would be a really bad thing to do when your bank is calling you asking to authorize a charge.

I don't think I've ever gotten a scam or spam from a 1-8XX number (not that I can remember, anyhow) but have gotten lots of legitimate calls from them.

 
Then your advice on the matter makes some sense.

I just checked 2+ years of stats in my Anveo VoIP web portal blacklist, and about half of the entries had broadcast toll-free numbers, real or fake.

The 800 Notes dot com website did not choose its name by accident, I can assure.

But as posted upthread, I do not so far block entire area codes.

In contrast, almost NO calls from legitimate and wanted callers have used a toll-free number as their CID to me.

There ARE some cases where I have called businesses or gov't depts which advertise having a toll-free number, so for THAT, naturally there will be matching entries made in my contact list, even though VoIP often charges the caller anyway.

I don't bank with RBC, but even if I did they can leave a voicemail. That's why they get sent there.Then you must not receive many spam calls. At the store, ever single spam call that comes in is from a 1-800 number. Doing what I described has saved us a lot of grief and frustration having to deal with people trying to sell us websites, merchant services or Google advertising. Because it worked so well at work I did the same thing at home.

I have yet to ever receive a single legitimate call from a 1-800 number. Ever. If I did, it's a simple matter of listening to the voicemail and calling them back. If they don't want to leave a message it's obviously not that important.

 
Yes, the mix of TF/TM/Junk/SPAM/SCAM calls to a business number such as yours (once established and harvested into all of those databases) can be quite different than those to a residential number.

My former business's landline number (which is now on my VoIP line) receives calls much like those which YOU get at your store, while my folks' former residential number (now on my cell) gets a different bunch, and for the most part there is not a lot of overlap, unless a caller is blanketing our NXX without any targeted approach, which only happens occasionally.

The main (if not only) defense which I have on the cell is in the phone itself, where I can maintain a simple 'drop the call' list of up to 25 specific numbers, where my Anveo VoIP web portal allows me much more precision as to how to handle incoming callers.