if it was important they’d leave a vm, ya’know?

It’s because scammers have basically ruined an entire method of communication, and the FCC is just OK with it.

My experience with scam callers has been that if you pick it up, they will keep calling because they flag your line as live. At one point, back when I’d answer and threaten to report them, it would be at least one call an hour, every single day. Since I stopped picking up, I rarely get calls anymore unless there’s a data leak with a company I use. Then I’ll see a little ramp up for a month or two before it dies down again.

If I don’t get a text or voice-mail right after the missed call, that’s how I know it was a scammer. If someone really wants to contact me they’ll try option B

This is one step more than I do: If someone calls me there is a 99% chance it’s spam so I never answer. If they do not leave a voicemail, I am 100% not calling them back.