Tired of the psychological warfare being waged on you by call centers around the globe? Landlines and mobile phones alike were bombarded by Robocalls, telemarketers, and would-be scammers. In the face of an unholy barrage of People Trying to Sell You Something, the FTC received 4.5 million complaints about such calls in 2017 — and those are just the people who bothered to lodge formal complaints. It’s an annoyance that virtually everyone in the country feels, and the debt reduction offers, fake calls about police looking for you, and transparent scams aimed at the elderly are only increasing in number.

Basically, it’s the one thing we can all agree on right now — we’re all tired of the phone going off several times a day with these calls, and we would all like them to go away forever. Well, they’re not going away forever anytime soon, and while there’s no way to eliminate them completely — blocking numbers is the most fruitless game of Whack-a-Mole ever — there are steps you can take to at least cut down on the volume. Here are some things you can try out to help restore your sanity.

Next page: The basics!