I get ten telemarketer calls a day. They all come from not just my area code but from our county, at least the phone says so. They have rendered my phone useless. I had to go through multiple menus to turn off all the chimes, buzzers, and dings. But I finally got it. Now I have a mechanical secretary. If you want to talk to me leave a message. Sometimes I get those Call us or the (LEO of the week) will be arriving with warrants or Your bank account has been compromised... and they actually leave the message. I saw something the other day that said the goobermint cant stop it because they are calling from foreign countries. Right.
I know one department of the federal government that can stop it, and in fact they specialize in operating in foreign countries. (I can dream anyway)
A common gimmick now is to fake a number from your own exchange, hoping you'll think it's a neighbor and you'll pick up.
Sometime they go overboard though. Last Thursday I got 11 calls at the house... all of them from my own number.