I came up with a neat trick. Start the answering message on your
answering machine with “Hello…” and then a pause. Telemarketers
seem to often use computers to detect this “hello…” as a human and then
the real human telemarketer picks up the phone. I was getting 0 messages
on my answering machine before. Now I’m getting around 4 per day
from frustrated telemarketers hanging up on my answering machine while
I’m not at home. It is to laugh!