won 2.5 million dollar scam

Bless her heart. This is why I try to answer calls. So maybe she won't have to. So they will waste their time with me, rather than scaring a person like her. So they can get nothing from me, rather than a credit/gift card from her. Yes, I could get a call blocker. But it would do absolutely nothing to help her. But at least for that 5-10-20 minutes on the call, I am 100% certain the scammer I'm talking to is not scamming anyone else. This is my motivation.

Sounds like a noble reason and I too have engaged a few scammers thinking the same thing at one point. I only do it for my own personal amusements now, because I view scammers like mosquitoes, while I'm swatting the one bothering me, it is not bothering anyone else. But the truth is there are thousands more to take its place and I prefer now to use mosquito repellent when ever I can, but will still swat at a few if I feel a need for amusement.

Repellent allows the mosquito to go elsewhere to feed. Unlike mosquitoes, which outnumber us - we outnumber the telemarketers. If enough people swat a few, we can make a serious dent in the population. That includes not just taking up their time, but by reporting to them the FTC/etc, and if you're inclined and have enough info, taking them to court. As it stands now, their business model requires that we "use repellent" in order to work.

I got what you were saying and was only giving my own personal status on how I 'feel' about unwanted calls. I didn't mean they were literally mosquitoes or had the same numbers to battle with. For me, using a call blocker is repellent and ignoring them is like being in a screened porch or enclosure. I don't really want to go out of my way to engage them for the purpose of 'trying' to get information useful to authorities, as  I personally have better things to do with my time. I know if enough people all gathered information and combined it for the authorities to use, it would put a dent into it, but still not stop it.
My personal belief is if everyone simply stopped talking to them and they did not have anyone left to scam, they would just die out and become extinct. But since neither of those are going to happen anytime soon, each individual will have to decide from the information provided on how to deal with an unwanted caller on their own.

No one can 'tell' someone what they 'should' do, but rather suggest what they 'could' do about an unwanted call.

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My personal belief is if everyone simply stopped talking to them and they did not have anyone left to scam, they would just die out and become extinct.

While true, we all know that isn't going to happen. However, understand their business model. It's a numbers game and it's absolutely dependent upon people to not answer the phone and waste their time. The fact is that they have maybe a couple of dozen people in the average boilerroom, but have computers placing millions of calls. They have to answer every call, since it could be a sale. They hope we don't answer the call, don't press '1', unless we're interested in completing a sale. That is their weak link - we vastly outnumber them. We can answer and respond to orders of magnitude more calls than they can answer - and that kills sale, which kill revenue, which kills profit - and they go bankrupt. That stops the calls.  When the business model no longer works, that is the only way to stop telemarketing.

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The fact is that they have maybe a couple of dozen people in the average boilerroom,

So where did that fact come from?  Because there is evidence that a lot of boiler rooms have a lot more people in them than a "couple of dozen".  Many boiler rooms in India have hundreds working for them, most likely in two 12 hours shifts (possibly longer shifts since I doubt they have any employment laws over there).
And again, the vast majority of the people are extremely ill equipped to handle a scammer on the phone and if they do engage said scammer are probably more likely to become a victim than to be a predator.
I know, I know you have all these so called statistics on how your plan will work, but it won't, and you simply won't accept that fact.  But go ahead and quote me all the reasons you think it will again to try to convince me, but don't put anything new in there to support your case.
We all know that insanity is attempting to do the exact same thing over and over and over again and expecting a different result.

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We can answer and respond to orders of magnitude more calls than they can answer - and that kills sale, which kill revenue, which kills profit - and they go bankrupt. That stops the calls.

Your own answer applies to your statement as well:

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While true, we all know that isn't going to happen.

Perhaps you didn't see the last portion of my reply above:

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But since neither of those are going to happen anytime soon, each individual will have to decide from the information provided on how to deal with an unwanted caller on their own.

No one can tell someone what they should do, but rather suggest what they could do about an unwanted call.

I don't really have anything to add/change about what I have already said, so I'm not sure what it is your trying to say. I feel like your trying to "one up" on me.

Do not even talk to these people, it's a scam.  It cost my sister 350000.00.  Five years later and there is still no money.  They quit calling after they had fleeced her out of everything after promising that she had won a lottery for 18 million dollars.  Wish I could find them and hang them up by their balls.

Your sister kept giving them more and more money until she was out $350,000?! Who does that?!

Sounds like quite a story, 5 years  eh? Your just now telling about it,  casually "sharing your wish" with no other details about what you have done to find out who, reported to, or anything, just that......not buying that story!

If I got all the money that they tell me that I won would be a billionaire right now same guy keeps calling using different name each time

It is called a call blocker. Get one and use it. Does great things.

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Your own answer applies to your statement as well:

The difference is it takes a much smaller percentage of people answering and harassing telemarketers to work, compared to the number of "everyones" it would take to stop talking to them.

Its really up to the individual to decide how to handle an unwanted call, not us.
I don't have any interest in debating it further as your not change my mind about it.

Just out of curiosity, why do you persist with this issue, when its obvious to both of us, neither of the ideas are going change anything?

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So where did that fact come from?

It comes from talking with a wide variety of telemarketers and having conversations with them. Yes, there are some bigger ones, but most of them are relatively small. But even the big ones are just an extremely small fraction people compared to the number of calls they originate.  They simply can not answer the vast majority of the calls them make - they are 100% dependent upon most people not being there, not answering, screening, blocking, or not pressing '1' to get to an agent. That's exactly why they use autodialers and robocalls - to avoid tying up actual people unless a call has a higher chance of making a sale.

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We all know that insanity is attempting to do the exact same thing over and over and over again and expecting a different result.

We could say the same for call blocking.  It's a technological solution to a social problem. Scammers are more likely to spoof numbers to get around them.  Complaints to the FTC have been going up, despite the number of call blockers available. We have been trying to ignore the telemarketers for literally decades (not answering, then screening, then call blocking, then what next?), and they are still plentiful. So what "exact same thing" are you expecting to have a different result? That's exactly why I'm proposing something that is different than the common party line here of "get a blocker". Take an honest look how they work, what their costs are, what there strategies are, what their business model is, what their techniques are - and tell me exactly how getting a fraction of people instituting call blocking makes any kind of serious dent in their business. You can't because of one major flaw in your argument - the people blocking AREN'T their customers anyway! Those people aren't reducing their gross revenues! They aren't adding in any significant way to their telecom costs, and due to CNAM dipping, may actually be a minor profit center for them.

Busy agents mean less calls placed. Autodialers monitor the number of available agents, and rate limit the outbound call volume to keep the abandonment rate down. The more agents that are busy means fewer calls that are placed. Blocking does nothing to induce the telemarketers/autodialers to reduce the volume of calls placed.

And the best yet - data acquisition. Reporting a spoofed number to the FTC does virtually nothing. They've already reported that sometimes by the time they serve subpoenas down the chain of custody for some telemarketing, there's no records available and trail is dead. Having people wiling to interact with them, and gain information from them, provides much better data for the FTC to start going after. The more and better evidence we provide, the better they can do their jobs. So instead of people complaining that the DNC and the FTC aren't doing enough - help them to help you.

Sorry BigA, but ever telemarketer I've talked to that figured out what I was doing, absolutely hates that I do this.  I've been called all variety of names by them, and the complaint is common: They don't like me (or anyone else) wasting their time. That's the biggest validation of what I do than anything counter argument you can make to me.  Because it means money to them. I do this because I stopped thinking like an end customer, and starting thinking in terms of a telemarketer. What are "my" costs, what are "my" liabilities? I don't care what most of you do. It really doesn't matter. It just take enough people to get tired and want to try something that's actually different. And I keep seeing more and more people on 800notes that are catching on. More people are willing to take the time to work the telemarketer for time and information. And people are thanking me for taking the time and discovering information that they can use to complain/sue as well.