Unsuspecting cellphone-freaks may feel like shutting their phones up now with cellphone jammers selling like hotcakes on the streets of New York.

Cellphone jammers are illegal gizmos that interfere with signals and cut off reception.

"I bought one online, and I love it" , New York Post quoted a jammer as saying.He says he had got fed up with the din of dumb conversations and the perpetually annoying diversity of ringtones.

"I use it on the bus all the time.  I always zap the idiots who discuss what they want from the Chinese restaurant so that everyone can hear them.  Why is that necessary?  I can't throw the phones out the window, so this is the next best thing", he added.

While an online jammer seller Victor McCormack said he's made "hundreds of sales" to New Yorkers.He claims people are buying them insanely.

Jammers come in a variety of shapes and sizes, from portable handhelds that look like cellphones to larger, fixed models as big as suitcases.

Their sole aim is to zip loud mouths.  The smaller gadgets emit radio frequencies that block signals anywhere from a 50- to 200- foot radius.  They range in price from 250 dollars to 2,000 dollars.  They are illegal to buy, sell, use, import or advertise.

A violation means an $11,000 fine, but the FCC's Enforcement Bureau has yet to bust one person anywhere in the country.

One local purchaser bought a portable jammer last year, and said he likes using it at Roosevelt Field mall on Long Island.

"One time I followed this guy around for 20 minutes," he said.  "I kept zapping him and zapping him, until finally he threw the phone on the floor.  I couldn't stop laughing.  It was so cool."

Jammers were first developed to help government security forces avert eavesdropping and fail phone-triggered bombings.Some hotels are also suspected to be using jammers to cut down on guests' cellphone use in order to boost in-room phone charges.(ANI)