I've noticed a gigantic uptick in text messages and phone calls where people try to bypass the call screening. It may get to the point where I'll only want to see comms from people in an allowlist.

I don't answer the phone from anyone I don't know. If it is something important, they'll find a way to reach me.

Unfortunately when you are on the job search every call can be important

Same, except for when I’m expecting a delivery, then I tend to answer calls from unknown numbers.

My standard response in such cases is “Hello unknown number, who are you and why should I not immediately hang up?”.

The response “Am I speaking to…” gets cut off with “Nope, you answer my questions first”. If they _must_ speak to Mr [MySurname] I claim to be my PA and that they aren't talking to him(me) without convincing me they aren't a junk call first. If I have a few minutes to spare, it can be quite an entertaining little game keeping them on the line so they can't be conning someone more vulnerable. Unfortunately must junk calls these days are either initially automated or the humans are wise to people like me being a waste of their time so they hang up cutting that fun short.

I solved this by renting small office that has reception and they handle deliveries. They are not far and so if I get something I get a text and then I collect when is convenient for me. I really hate waiting for couriers to ring, so it's a massive stress relief.

That’s also what I want to do. I currently have my office/lab at home and waiting for deliveries to come is very stressful as I basically have to be ready to answer the door at any time, which can be many hours.

I usually answer unknown numbers if they are from my own country only. And then i open with a sound like 'huh??' so they cannot do the voice cloning. if no one says anything then hang up. usually its robocalls using crappy TTS but there are crews with more advanced capabilities out there.