We’re sitting down to the evening meal ready to enjoy the food before us when it happens… the phone rings. We drop the fork and get to the phone. The calling number: Unknown. If we’re adventurous we answer only to be assailed with some spiel about buying another useless plastic doohickey that will last as long as the phone call. In disgust, we hang up and return to the table.

I have been pondering an idea for a while and finally today I went forward with it. I researched the tones we hear when we dial a number that is disconnected or no longer in service. I was able to locate a recording of the proper tones and download them. Then I recorded a message explaining why you have heard the tones and the usual statement to leave a message after the beep. After editing it all together I used the mobile phone to play back the audio file into the phone as my new land line greeting.

Now hopefully the telemarketer’s robo-calling equipment will detect the tones and decide to remove me from their files. I guess only time will tell.

Linked below are the links and files I used to make this happen.