There were two men in black at my front door this morning.

[DFW]

49. We had them exactly once

We were on vacation on Cape Cod, and a big black limousine drove up and sent out two poor teenagers in black suits to the door of the house we were renting. I had no idea what was going on but my wife knew. She had no intention of wasting away our precious vacation time, and told me to get rid of them, as they trained their people to be very persistent. I told her to answer the door herself, and speak ONLY German, no matter what they said. It worked. Neither of the boys spoke any German at all, and quickly left when they realized it was hopeless. I do it to telemarketers and cold calls for contributions to the candidate for dog catcher in Bozeman, Montana. In my advanced age, in such moments, I can only remember how to speak Swedish, Russian or Catalan. They give up pretty quickly.

The best answer I heard in the USA was to interrupt the caller and ask for their names and home telephone numbers. They usually refuse and ask why. Why? So I can call YOU up at inconvenient times of the day and try to sell YOU something. That usually gets them to hang up, too.