I didn’t join any do not call registry, but here’s what I did to stop the calls dead in their tracks..
One evening as I was sitting down to dinner, the phone rang and a young lady was on the phone inquiring about my interest in purchasing some land in north georgia. (this was before the big boom and prices going out of control).
I decided to play along with her and got excited about the offer..the more excited I got, the more excited she got and after about 10 minutes of conversation, she was convinced she “had one”..then we got to the details..was (xxx) my home address..”yes”..was (xxx) my home phone number..”yes, you called me on it”..then it got to income..she asked what the annual family income was and I said, “Well, I’m unemployed but my wife works part-time, will that work??” SHE hung up on me after wasting a good 15-20 minutes on the phone..result?? when they sold their list, my name showed up as unemployed and ALL calls stopped within 30 days..
A friend of mine, who is an evangelical Christian, told me that whenever a telemarketer calls he tells them that in order for him to listen to their speech, they have to listen to him for 2 minutes first. When they agree, he starts the converstion with “Do you know Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior?” At that point the telemarketer will either hang up, or give him a chance to tell about Jesus. He said it is a win/win situation for him.