My doctor once needed to reach me about something important. He called me from a random desk phone at the hospital. My phone setup at the time rejected it with no voicemail option for the caller.
Same thing happens in all sorts of real-life situations; whitelisting to numbers in your contacts list can be a serious problem.
Cryptographically Authenticated caller ID, including a human or organization name, seems to be the only real solution.
Sure. Thus far, anyone who really does need to reach me for something important finds a way to do so that doesn't involve me answering their call. I also don't bother with voicemail; turned it off. I never bothered checking it, so it was creating unrealistic expectations that I'd get their message.
Sure, it's a risk. One day someone could try to phone me with life-or-death information, completely out of the blue (if I was waiting for a life-or-death call, I'd be expecting the phone to ring so might answer it). This is a risk I choose to take, in exchange for not answering the phone. I'm usually not near it anyway, so miss most calls as it is. It's the future, everyone; stop answering the phone!
Same thing happens in all sorts of real-life situations; whitelisting to numbers in your contacts list can be a serious problem.
Cryptographically Authenticated caller ID, including a human or organization name, seems to be the only real solution.