Here are my tips:
There are 209 million Americans over age 18. If every single adult American
called just one scammer per week, the scammers’ phone lines would be
so overwhelmed that they would have to shut down.
I get my phone numbers mostly from these six sites, in this order:
http://scammer.info
https://bobrtc.tel/
https://www.reddit.com/r/ScamNumbers/
https://www.whocalledme.com/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/325854828236533
https://www.nomorobo.com/lookup
If that does not work, I then Google these search terms. With each search,
I filter for the last 24 hours or even the last one hour.
"social security" site:nomorobo.com
"Amazon" site:nomorobo.com
"U.S. Customs" site:nomorobo.com
"US Customs" site:nomorobo.com
"subscription" site:nomorobo.com
"refund" site:nomorobo.com
"warranty" site:nomorobo.com
"arrest" site:nomorobo.com
"legal action" site:nomorobo.com
"won" site:nomorobo.com
"Lord" site:nomorobo.com
"Apple" site:nomorobo.com
People have recently asked me how I record calls.
I make the outbound phone calls with Google Voice or TextNow. Sometimes, the sound quality seems a tad better with TextNow.
I normally make the calls on a normal desktop computer, with a USB headphone/microphone. I record the conversations using OBS Studio, available for free at: https://obsproject.com/ With the older version that ended in "1," I had to make some modifications to avoid an annoying echo. In the audio mixer, I muted all the audio tracks *except* for track one (audio input capture) and track three (desktop audio). In the newer version that ends with "2," I only have to worry about two tracks, and I leave both running.
I then take the Mp4 files and upload them to Movie Studio 16.0 (which I had to pay for, but free movie software is available online.) If I was going to choose a free program, I would probably use Movie Maker 10, available at: https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/p/movie-maker-10-free/9mvfq4lmz6c9?activetab=pivot:overviewtab If I get an inbound call from a scammer, then I have to improvise by filming the cell phone with a video camera. If you do not want people to see the inside of your home, I would recommend covering the image with a JPG of your choosing.