stop telemarketer calls

What is the best way to stop telemarketer calls to your home phone number?
Hello, There are several ways to stop telemarketers from calling your home. There are several products out there that can be bought and installed (no professional installation, just plugs into your phone line) that stops telemarketer calls that are dialed by certain automated computers. Here%26#39;s a link to a few of the more popular ones if you decide to take that route: http://www.telazap.com/ http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00005TQ1Y/ref=ase_1028446324810-20/002-4714844-9952041 There is also something called %26#39;call intercept%26#39; that the Verizon phone company offers if you happen to have your telephone service provided by them - basically this is an add-on feature to caller-ID and is explained in a cut and paste below from Verizon%26#39;s site ( http://www22.verizon.com/foryourhome/SAS/ProdDesc.asp?ID=6063%26amp;state=V1 ): %26quot;How Call Intercept Works * This automated service works with Caller ID service. * Unidentified callers that typically show up as %26quot;Anonymous,%26quot; %26quot;Out of Area,%26quot; %26quot;Private%26quot; or %26quot;Unavailable%26quot; on your Caller ID display are prompted to record their identity before your phone rings.* * Once the caller records his or her identity, the service alerts you with a unique ring and displays %26quot;Call Intercept%26quot; on your Caller ID unit. * When you pick up the phone, Call Intercept plays the recording and then gives you several options for handling the call. Additional Benefits * Unidentified callers who don%26#39;t record their name hear a pre-recorded message stating that you do not accept unidentified calls, and then are disconnected. * Use of a four-digit Personal Identification Number (PIN) that you choose allows friends and family to bypass the screening process. When Call Intercept is bypassed using the PIN, you hear a unique ring and %26quot;Priority Call%26quot; appears on the Caller ID display. * If no one answers, Call Intercept will allow the caller to leave a message on your answering machine or Home Voice Mail service.%26quot; Also, there are several services offered by various not-for-profit companies that run %26quot;Do Not Call%26quot; lists - supposedly all they do is put peoples phone numbers on these lists and distribute them to telemarketers. More information about this can be found here: http://www.privacyrights.org/fs/fs5-tmkt.htm If I had to give my opinion on the %26#39;best%26#39; way after shifting through all of the above stuff, I would have to say the last link to the Privacy Rights website above sounds the most logical. They don%26#39;t offer any 100% success stories or anything - there really isn%26#39;t a way to completely stop telemarketer calls but using some or all of the methods above should drastically cut down on the number of them that you recieve. Please feel free to ask for clarification or rate this answer :) I hope this helps!
I meant to add this link, but missed it when moving this from my notepad to the answer box here. This is The Direct Marketing Association%26#39;s (The DMA) website - this specific link points to their %26quot;How to get your name off telemarketing lists%26quot; section. There%26#39;s some good information here. http://www.dmaconsumers.org/cgi/offtelephonedave Regards, dandrick-ga