The most persistent robo-scam?

     I went to my brother's place this afternoon to watch a movie.  It took longer than expected to get ready, so I was there most of the afternoon.

    I got home and found messages waiting on my landline.  (Yes, I still have a landline.  I like having it.  It's easier to talk on a landline phone than a cell phone.)  Nine of them.

    Not that they were actually different messages.  They were all the same recording, claiming to be "Apple security advisor".

    They must have filled my answering machine's capacity, because there were 13 missed calls on the caller ID, all from different numbers with the same first three digits as mine.  (Not the area code, the next part.  Y'know, the part they replace with 555 when giving phone numbers in movies.)

    It's called back three more times since I got home.

    I seriously want it to stop, but I have no idea how to force it to do that.  I mean, maybe if I answered it and played along and got talking to one of the scammers on the other end and played stupid for a while until I then claimed to have been recording them for the FBI, then maybe they'd go away for good.  I ran a quick search after I got home and found someone's account where they had done just that.  But I'm not good with confrontation, you know?  I feel like I'd mess up.

    Which is a pity, actually, because I think it would be fun to really screw with them, like pretend to be a senile old lady who not only hasn't got an iPhone, but hasn't even got a computer, because what would they do with the scam from there?  (Back before I had caller ID, I used to get calls claiming to be from "the Windows," and sometimes I was able to successfully mess with them and be like "No, I just had my windows cleaned, thanks," or another time (possibly one where they said they were from "the Microsoft") where I was like "stop harassing me, I'll never switch from Linux!")

    OMG, it just called back again.

    That makes seventeen times today!

    These last two times, they actually managed to spoof numbers that are in use, so it gave a name ("Commercial Deve"-something the first time, and an individual's name this most recent time) instead of just putting the number on both lines.

    This is really maddening, and I have no idea what to do about it.

    In the olden days, I could have left the phone off the hook overnight to see if it would stop (or at least to make sure I'd be able to get some sleep tonight), but my current landline is only wireless handsets; it's impossible to leave it off the hook. :<  Yet another reason to miss the way telephones worked in the old days.  (I wonder if maybe I can unhook the main base from the line, though.  That should work, as long as I remember to plug it back in when I get up in the morning.  But maybe the scam calls will stop long before bedtime.  They don't usually call past seven or eight at night, so hopefully?)