Why did I register my phone number with the Do-Not-Call Registry anyway?

It seems marketing companies could care less about the Do-Not-Call Registry. While federal and state laws penalize marketers that call people on the Do-Not-Call list, millions of calls are placed in total disregard of the registry and the laws designed to stop these personal privacy invasions.

Right now most of these companies are engaged in high pressure sales tactics to sell worthless extended car warranties or home security alarms.

Many consumers have come up with clever ways to "mess with" telemarketers, but most would just like to put an end to them.

Here is some advice.

Next time you get a telemarketing call, take notes and act interested until the end.

First, note whether the caller used a computer to call you. You can tell if there is a pause between the time you pick up and a real person comes on the line. Also, a lot of these companies are actually playing a recording that requests you to "hit 1" to talk to somebody about whatever they are selling. If you were called by an automated system, most likely a federal statute has been violated.

Second, as you're acting interested, ask for the name of the person talking to you, and the company he or she works for. Also, ask where the company is located, how's the weather there? -- keep the conversation going and write all of this information down.

Next, find out what they are selling exactly and the company or companies that will be providing the product or service, ask where those companies are located. Again, write this all down.

Now this is very important -- ask if there is something you can read about the product or service that they are selling, and if you can see the contract. Some of these marketers will give you a website to go to and view their application form and sample contract. These documents are very important in identifying all of those companies that are responsible for calling you, and are a huge help to me in investigating these kinds of cases.

Once you have gathered all of this information, most likely you will get the sales pitch of how much whatever they are selling will cost, and all of this information should also be written down.

But once you have taken all of these notes, tell the caller that you are not interested at all in what they are selling. You are tired of getting these kinds of calls, and you simply wanted to know who to sue. Then, tell them to take your phone number out of their database immediately and never call you again.

Once you've done all of this, get this information to me -- because I'm tired of this stuff also, and want to help.