To avoid answering unknown numbers? Ring ring

[GiddyJadeHare]

Your phone’s ringing. You take it out of your pocket, and suddenly… you see it’s from a number you don’t know! 😱

Are you answering it, or letting it ring?

I’d love to hear your thoughts and any funny stories about those mysterious calls!

Always answer. It could be someone who needs you. Always treat with suspicion though. I never give out personal details if they call me. I google the "real" number to call them back

You start, OP. Has your editor asked you to approach MN about this or are you using your initiative?

Your aibu is...?

What sort of fun?

I will occasionally answer if it's local, but not say anything. If it's a spammer/scammer they hang up, if it's someone I know whose number I didn't recognise they'll start saying "Hello? [Catsmere]? You there?" and the call can go ahead (and I can add them to my contacts afterward).

My mobile is my business number, I answer it to anyone and everyone.

Of course I answer, that's what the phone is for.

I get the absolute fear when my phone rings. It’s like my brain jumps to worst case scenarios. I usually leave them unless I’m expecting a call or a delivery or something where plausibly someone might be calling me.

If they genuinely need to speak to me they can text or leave a voicemail.

Of course i answer.

Could be your child who's on holiday and left their phone in the sun to overheat and no longer works.🙄

They call you from a friends number to let you know the situation.

Same. It's not because I am scared to answer it lol, it's because it's always some BS scam/cold seller/canvassing call and they never tell you what they want straight away. They always do the whole "how are you today?" spiel and waste your time for bloody ages before they reveal their true intentions.

I always answer. I didn't use to but then would find myself anxious about what the call might have been. So now I find it better to answer and deal with it (usually nothing important) there and then.

My clever darling of a phone tells me when it's a probable scam. That saves me the trouble of even checking the number.
Without that feature I would ignore if it was an unkown.

I've been getting several calls from allegedly UK mobiles but the voicemail is in Chinese! I never answer them so am hoping they've stopped. I read online it was a scam aimed at Chinese students so I blocked them all.

This. In general I would tend to be someone who answers my phone, but spam calls have made me a bit less likely to.

On my phone unknown number is normally spam, if so the phone flags up as potential spam which I now never answer as its normally someone wanting my password or banking details..

If its says private number its pretty much always the GP or hospital calling.

After the hospital had to call four times to get through to me, I'm a bit keener to answer. And being a medical call (about a close relative), they wouldn't leave a voicemail.

Why are you asking, OP? Only polite to explain that, and to give your thoughts / funny stories before asking for ours.

I used to always, always ignore.

Now I answer – if they ask if they’re speaking with ‘MoonPieHazy’, I say – ‘May I ask who’s calling!’

I always answer, because I hate having to listen to voicemail.

I have my phone set up so that only people in my contacts can get through. Everything else is blocked. I wouldn't answer an unknown number.

Get a grip. Seriously. Not everything is written for some non-existent editor/newspaper.

It's probably a scam. Plus criminals can spoof numbers so it being a local area code means nothing.

I always answer don’t get the drama if it a spam call hang up instantly
if you’ve take the time to look it’s only a few seconds to answer

used to work for one of the utilities we had to ring ahead before visiting always withheld my number loads didn’t answer and missed there repair visit as a result

It's an understandable question, your OP is giving I'm doing a spot of "research"

Dont most people already know that it's pretty much the norm not to answer numbers you don't know unless you're waiting for a medical to other important call?

I get spam calls every day no I don't answer them, if I got spam door knocks I would ignore that too but as they are too lazy to get off their computers and try that then doorbells gets answered

So if I know who is calling or a local number I answer