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You basically have 2 choices; the easiest is to say nothing but just hang up. The best way to annoy them when doing this is to push 5 (or whatever number the robot wants you to push), then wait until the human comes on-line then either just hang up at that point, put them on-hold (which I do which hangs up the phone when they hang up), or play with them ... Which is the 2nd choice.
Playing with them...Just saiy "hello, hello?". Do not acknowledge what they're saying at all. Just "Hello? Can you hear me? Hello?" etc. The ones who want to put a virus in your computer will hang on for some time, but the ambulance/ppi chasers will hang up quite quickly.
Play Eliza with them. You obviously need to know Eliza to do this. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ELIZA
Try to frighten them and give them nightmares.. "Hello? It's nice to talk to someone. They hit me when they see me using the phone but I'm hiding from them. They beat me up a lot. I have to hang-up now as I hear them coming ... Noooo" ... etc.
I feel this is a little unfair to play with the ambulance/ppi/survey people, but it's their choice who they work for... But the ones who want to infect your computer with a virus and extort you are fair game.
Blowing a whistle at them isn't nice though.But the best way is to simply hang up. Get on with your life, let them get on with theirs.
Actually that's not quite the best choice, the best choice is to actively manage your callers by answering every call and giving them the choice: Push 1 if you're a friend, 2 for sales, 3 for marketing and 0 for all others. You only gate callers who provide valid caller ID and push 1 through... You need a clever system like Asterisk on a Pi to do this though.
Gordon -- The Mailing List for the Devon & Cornwall LUG https://mailman.dclug.org.uk/listinfo/list FAQ: http://www.dcglug.org.uk/listfaq