How to block these ridiculous automated calls

First off, I have a standard landline. None of this AT&T Uverse VoIP phone line. I have a residential landline. I prefer this as it works even without power and no battery backup like Uverse requires.

With that being said, I bought a good handset that blocks up to 200 numbers and I have quite a few area codes blocked which has stopped a lot of these robotic calls that are either automated systems or cardholder services calling about a credit card we don't have. It blocks these spam calls claiming to be Microsoft looking to hack your computer.

The problem is, these robot calls have became smarter. Now they are coming up on your caller idea with a local number and the caller id will read "Out of area". I've even had our caller id showing our home number calling our home number, which is absolutely ridiculous. I didn't realize our own home phone could dial itself. Sure, I could use my handset that would block my own home number, but I can't exactly block my area code because then it would block family calling.

Any suggestions on blocking these stupid calls? I know *77 will block anonymous calls and those that block their id, but it won't block these "out of area" ID calls. They've even managed to sometimes use an actual local number that will pull up a real person's name that lives in the same city and will show up on the answering machine as an automated recording.

These stupid robot calls have got so annoying that I'm about to do away with the landline period.