Telemarketers - How do you deal with them?

Whenever I run into a telemarketer, I act surprised: "Oh really? No way!"

As he/she tries to sell me some product or service, I continue to roleplay that of some hillbilly hick who just realized cordless phones were invented. Then comes the good'ol "Hold on a min.... just hold on a min, or two, I gots to find that check book. It gots my balance and everythin. I'mma look on the book shelf."

Then I just put aside the receiver and let it be for some random number of hours. Sure I might miss a few calls, or get that annoying dead-end tone, but that's only because I've already forgotten about it. Forgotten about the phone, not the caller.

Although, that scenario is for times I remember to act in such a way. Commonly I will just tell them I don't live at this residence, that I'm someone else. I'd explain the phone number reference may be a cause of some prank and if they continue to pester me despite the mistake, I would find and take legal action. Which reminds me of that news article I read about some guy getting $100,000.00 from sueing, or threatening to sue, telemarketers for bothering him.

Jam it back in, in the dark.