Scott Maxwell: Latest telemarketer scheme, budgets, more.

Few things are more annoying than telemarketers.

They interrupt dinner. They peddle products you don’t want. They’re the reason you ignore calls from strange numbers. (Sorry, Mom! I forgot you got a new line.)

Telemarketers know this. So they’re constantly coming up with new tricks and tactics. Enter the ringless robocall. With a ringless robocall, your phone never actually rings. The recorded pitch is just left on your voicemail.

My first reaction was: Fine. If I don’t have to run to the phone, you saved me a trip.

But consumer advocates say ringless robocalls are nefarious because they can get around call-blocking restrictions and cost you money and minutes when placed to cellphones.

That’s why a number of attorneys general — including those from New York, Kentucky and Massachusetts — are pushing to ban the practice. So where does your AG stand? Who knows? The Palm Beach Post tried to get an answer from

Pam Bondi a few weeks ago, but Bondi’s office refused to say.

I asked again this week and got no response either.

Why not at least take a stand? Well, maybe because one group that likes ringless robocalls is Bondi’s Republican Party, which has asked the Federal Communications Commission to let the practice continue.

Amusingly, the Post also noted a Naples car dealership has been using the new robocall technology, meaning you have a trifecta of the world’s least popular professions — telemarketers, politicians and car salesmen — on the same team.