Last time I was in the Gambia, I was constantly approached by touts on the beach, so much so that I adopted an alternative identity. This visit, I’ve been experimenting with different ways of avoiding undue trouble with hustlers.
Don’t…
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Pretend to be mute. I tried this last week, and the beach hustler kept trying to communicate with me in sign language. The guy would not give up.
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Falter. Last night, on my way home from a restaurant, I changed my course because I remembered I wanted to buy water and attracted significant attention. Hustlers can smell uncertainty.
Do…
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Walk purposefully.
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Dress like a boring working person rather than a fun-loving tourist.
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Mutter to yourself and occasionally start laughing, unprovoked by external stimuli. (I wish I could claim this was a purposeful ruse, but, well…)
David Evans' personal blog 
Yeh, the going mute thing doesn’t work. When my buddy and I were getting chased by a drunk guy with a shotgun claiming to be a park fee collector in Peru, my buddy told him (in slurred speech) he was deaf, but that just meant the guy ran faster and caught up with me.