When I do a web search, I find devices "preloaded with xxx thousand numbers" or room for me to add xxx thousand numbers, but IME, spam/robo calls never come from the same number twice, so that is a waste of me pressing the "block call" feature.

 

I want an answering machine including multiple cordless phones, and maybe that will connect to bluetooth to handle mobile calls too, that will:

 

1. if the number is in my local directory (names I have saved as friends), act like a normal answering machine: wait 2-6 rings (selectable) while ringing all my cordless phones with the "friend" ringtone and maybe saying the name, and then answer and take a message. (This would be a short, casual, friendly message)  "Hi, it's <my name>, please leave a message"

 

3. If the callerid is "PRIVATE", "UNKNOWN", "TOLL FREE CALL", "CELLULAR CALL", "WIRELESS CALLER", or "ILLINOIS CALL" (which can be programmed for different local service providers' defaults), answer immediately with "hello" and wait a second.  A real person, admittedly including some spammers, will respond immediately.  A robocaller will have a 2-second delay until they connect their end to a person, so my device will hang up.  If there is an immediate voice response, record it, then when they pause, respond "please wait while I locate <my name>" and continue ringing my phone(s), with an "anonymous" ringtone.

 

4.  If I pick up, play the message it recorded and give me the options

--connect live

--play a message to "remove me from your phone list and do not call back" and hang up

--respond as if I did not pick up (below

 

5. After a while, if I do not pick up, return to the caller and say "<my name> is not available. if are you happy with the message you left, just hang up, or press 1 to leave no message, or press 2 to record a new message."

 

6. bonus #1 (maybe).  Long ago, I saw (or had?) a phone which had a button, press it and it would emit the tones the phone company uses to indicate a non-working number, purportedly would cause the spammers to remove the number from their list.  Maybe that doesn't work anymore, as I have not seen it as a listed feature.  I think I have recently gotten a special tone when I called a non-working number.

 

7. bonus #2: let me record a special message for a specific number, e.g. Sam is coming over today, so for Sam ONLY, a message plays "I may be 15 minutes late getting home, please wait for me."

 

8. bonus #3: like bonus #2, but for names in my directory in a group, e.g. family members or members of a club, the message could be "our next gathering is Sunday at 4 PM".

 

9. the special messages above should be selectable to be for 24 hours or until I delete them.  Or maybe till the person calls.