It's a good strategy. They feed the autodialer with a list of phones, and when it hears human voice, it transfers the call to an operator. If you didn't answer it will call you several more times. If you answered but didn't speak, it will (probably) not insist for that day.
My record is a call of around 14 hours. The autodialer called me after 10:00pm (supposedly illegal here), and there were no operators to take the call. I left my phone charging with the call active, and went to sleep, since the caller pays the call. Kept the call until I needed to go out, and I like to think that even if the call wasn't expensive because it was bulk price, maybe having a line busy helped slow down spam for others.
I don't do that anymore because spam calls have multiplied, it would mean answering more spam than I'd like.
I always answer, and immediately mute and put on speaker. Some will maintain the connection for 30 seconds; others will never disconnect. If it's a real contact, usually they'll say "Hello? Blisterpeanuts? Are you there???" and then I pick up.
My record is a call of around 14 hours. The autodialer called me after 10:00pm (supposedly illegal here), and there were no operators to take the call. I left my phone charging with the call active, and went to sleep, since the caller pays the call. Kept the call until I needed to go out, and I like to think that even if the call wasn't expensive because it was bulk price, maybe having a line busy helped slow down spam for others.
I don't do that anymore because spam calls have multiplied, it would mean answering more spam than I'd like.