I was visiting my father in a nursing home and a telemarketer called his phone t here! I did not hesitate to subject the offender to a stream of verbal abuse (no swearing, but I made it clear that I regarded them as somewhere between a louse and a cockroach)- kept asking, "who gave you this number?" "Who the h__l asked you to call this number?" Definitely appropriate to treat them like trash. No on e gave out that number, I'm not even sure it's in the phone book. -Bill (father 78/4)