I had a "Telezapper" before we switched to VOIP. When you call a disconnected phone number, there are those 3 tones like "booh-bah-beep" before you hear the recorded message. The Telezapper seems to work by playing those tones when you pick up the phone--the default mode just plays the "booh" but there is a more "aggressive" mode where it plays all three "booh-bah-beep". Apparently, some auto-dialers "listen" for those tones then eliminate phone numbers from their lists. It seemed to help, but I had one person who complained that hearing those tones was "confusing" whenever she called me, so I just thought I would mention that. Jan Werner wrote: > You can get a fax switching device that answers the phone line > silently, detects fax and modem tones and routes incoming calls to the > appropriate device. Some even incorporate Telezapper-like technology > to get you off predictive dialing lists. although there are questions > as to whether that really works. Jonathan