I have my answering machine permanently on, and all calls go to it. Almost invariably, scam/spam calls hang up as soon as the answering machine cuts in.

If the caller is someone I want to talk to (and there aren’t many who fall into that category), I pick up when they begin to leave their message. If they don’t leave a message and hang up, I take the view that they probably didn’t want to speak to me very badly and, if they did, they’ll call back.

I never make calls on my land-line, I always use my mobile - my contract includes more ‘free’ minutes per month than I could use in ten years, so there’s absolutely no reason to use my land-line to make calls.