Just a thought: If your caller I.D. warned you that it was the pest calling, have a little taped message that you play, a woman's voice, "The number you have dialed has been disconnected and there is no forwarding number." Think this might work?

What about answering, pretending to be a recording, saying "Hello, you've reached the FCC anti-telemarketing and telephone harrassment hotline. At the tone, please clearly state the name of the company that is harrassing you, including any erroneous debt collection attempts. The FCC assures you this is a completely confidential service, and we will follow up every report to the fullest extent of the law. Thank you and have a nice day." Then press the 1 button or something for the tone.

I've been wanting to try this one out!

You: Hello

Them: May I speak with Mr Sleazy

You: ummm OK. I need to verify who you are and your company before I put him on the line.

Them: I am Jan with credit pals. [you verify on google)

You: Thanks. Is ytour address /////???? [as found on google]

Them: Yes

You: Thank you for calling Whiz Bang consulting. Our fee is $6000/hour and this call is considered to be your free consultation. Future calls will be billied in 1 minute increments and billed to the address you gave. Failure to pay within 10 days of invoice will result in our turning your account over to our collection agency. How may we help you?

I got a tele marketer on the phone once who stated the name of his company and I found their website and fax number. I then sent them 1,000 computer faxes asking them to leave me alone. They did. Oh, and I had free nationwide calling.

I've had my home phone number for over 3 years, and I still get a couple of calls a day for the deadbeat who had the number before I did. Usually they are robocalls. I like the idea of doing some research and getting the office number of a senior manager or owner. I think it would be fun to tape the robocall, and then call the office number non-stop on the weekend, and just playback the robocall over & over until his voicemail is full.

Actually, even more to the point would be to take a sheet of paper insert it into the fax and tape the ends together (to form a roll) and just let it go for several hours.

Wonder why people are still on welfare? At my old place, I had the same number for 9 years. 6 years after moving in, I was still getting occasional calls from people asking if I was a temporary employment agency. I finally started asking them how old their phone book was, because the temp agency hadn't had that number in x years.

Since I got a VOIP phone about 3 years ago I've had zilch, zero, zip, no such calls. Is this an advantage to a VOIP phone, or have I just been lucky?