[DannyTN]

"Crooks who do this should be castrated."

True but the phone companies need preventive measures on this type of activity.

• There should always be a warning that a line is a pay or international line before the call is connected.
• The money for such calls should be held in reserve for a month. And returned to callers if it appears there was abuse.
• A computer program could easily check to see if pay lines are calling customers and hanging up.
• The phone companies should prosecute the callers.
• And they should refuse to take calls and/or charge extra from countries that do not assist in the prosecution.

[Squawk 8888]

Another good line of defence is to disable overseas calls on the account. With my carrier I can log in anytime to enable or disable the feature. This is especially important if it’s your kids’ phone.

[Leaning Right]

the phone companies need preventive measures on this type of activity

I'm guessing that the phone company gets a slice of all fees billed to your phone. So they have very little incentive to take action here.

[EQAndyBuzz]

Drone Strike.

[mwilli20]

• There should always be a warning ...
• The money for such calls ...
• A computer program could ...
• ...

All good ideas that unfortunately ... cost money to implement. Who's going to pay that money? You and I in increased subscriber fees.

I prefer he lower cost of the service along with a lifelong absolute lack of interest into who exactly was that called me from a number I do not recognize. :-)