Greetz

Naturally I'd like "Free" but I wouldn't mind paying a small amount for a service that's actually worth it. Some have very low approval scores. I don't get many bad calls (maybe 1`a month) but I don't hesitate reporting scammers... as long as I can actually identify them so.

Since it is trivial to fake caller ID there is not much value in any reverse lookup service.

I have found several that really suck, but the ones that were really good and cheap or free all closed or have been corrupted. Some have been purchased by the scammers, so they can block lookups of their own lines.

The one at Whitepages.com may be best, but since I stopped using them once all the ones I knew went to h3ll I cannot make any solid recommendation.

Definitely this. I've gotten calls from my own phone number before. Seems pointless.

Well I was hoping to be able to discover which ones I recognize as legit. I don't answer or call back any sources not already known to me.

I read somewhere 70% of Americans have set their phones to stay mute when caller is not in contacts. I've done the same, 5-6 spam calls per day otherwise. It kind of defies the whole purpose having a phone. It is 21st century and it is technically possible to make forging numbers almost impossible. But nobody cares. The idea of paying for government is to have protection against criminals. Our government is doing its own thing ...

Maybe it is just because my current and first smartphone number is only a few months old but in 3 months I've only had 2 unrecognized calls total. I'm hoping instead it's because I'm using a De-Googled Android phone ( with Calyx ) and don't do email or web browsing on the phone. I don't even write my phone's number in emails. I want close to zero association between the two that's not wired. If it works even halfway to my satisfaction, I'll gladly pay substantial bucks for a PinePhone once hardware gets a little more up to date. The Pro looks pretty decent but if I'm going to get a full operating system, basically a mobile PC that doubles as a phone, I want some future-proof speed.

Note - BTW Kdeconnect is pretty great.