I’d seen the number before on the caller ID screen, but answered the phone, like a dummy.

It was a recorded “robo-call” from a credit card company that attempts to scare you in the opening announcement.

The company makes several calls per week to this number and are never answered, now.

My mistake was answering the phone the first time and asking the live agent, who at length came on the line, to remove me from their calling list. Oh, sure.

The telemarketer just learned that this number is connected to an individual. They figure if they keep calling, a human will eventually answer the phone. No way. Not now.

This number is registered on the “do not call” list, short for the “National Do Not Call Registry.” This is a program by the Federal Trade Commission, and ethical telemarketers will follow it, but there are others.

After registering your phone number, trash calls should end after about a month.

Bad telemarketers ignore the list.

There are even scammers making calls offering to sign people up for the “do not call” list. The FTC doesn’t do that. If you get a call like that, hang up. You can do it on your own.

Another scam, painted like a credit card deal, offers a credit card at an interest rate that is hard to believe.

There is a reason it is hard to believe — it isn’t real.

Once they convince you to transfer your account to “their card,” they have your real credit card account number, and your card will travel around the world without you attached to it.

Almost funny, but not, is that some of the scammers are already in prison. And, how do they manage to get to a phone?

But back to my calls.

There is a procedure to file a complaint with the FTC about unwanted calls whether you are on the “do not call” list or not.

The Federal Communications Commission also has a dog in this fight, and they have teeth. You can file a complaint with them, or with the FTC or both.

You know me: I don’t want to miss a thing, so I file complaints with both.

It is a quirk of the law that even if you know the name of the scumbag business, their address and telephone number, you can’t return the favor and call the president of the telemarketing company at home or deliver a cussin’ at 3 a.m.

Nor can you show up at company headquarters for street justice.

Nor can you get your nutty sister-in-law to call the president’s wife while he is at work and put a cussin’ on her or drop hints about what he does after lunch.

It doesn’t work that way.

The nuisance calls have not stopped, but have dropped off.

I won’t be happy until I can answer the phone in peace.

If you want to register your phone, it is easy to do and permanent.

Just call 888-382-1222. It is a free call and might be answered by a human; maybe not, but it should work anyway.

Joe Phillips writes his “Dear me” columns for several small newspapers. He has many connections to Walker County, including his grandfather, former superintendent Waymond Morgan. He can be reached at joenphillips@hotmail.com.