We’ve given up on legislators and congressmen being able to stop annoying telemarketing robocalls. Especially annoying are ones that sound a “bloop,” then wait a few seconds before connecting you.

Companies running these call centers appear to value your time less than that of their call center pitch men and machines. You wait until they’re ready to talk. But, of course, they won’t be willing to give any straight talk about exactly who’s calling and what they’re trying to sell.

Fortunately, technologies can limit some of such calls. What they can’t limit is junk mail that is equally deceptive about who’s writing you. If Murphy were alive, he’d posit a new law: The more important an envelope says it is, the more likely it is to end up in the trash.

The two above are great examples. One looks like an official government announcement, possibly related to taxes. The other seems to be a bill you might have overlooked. In fact, both come from the same company — one that sells hearing aids.

Fortunately, we don’t need their product. If we did, we’d buy it from someone else — a company that doesn’t try so hard to deceive.

With legislators and congressmen seemingly powerless to stop such ads, money guns in attorney commercials, and medicine that claims not to be medicine so it isn’t regulated, perhaps the best solution is to keep track of who advertises shamefully and turn the tables by never buying any product they sell.

— ERIC MEYER