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In the UK we can set preferences with the telephone preference service . But another is to set up a premium rate line and rake in the money - although it might be polite to set up another regular number for family and friends.

In Belgium you can add yourself to the http://www.robinsonlist.be/ and not get any calls anymore. This needs to be refreshed after two years. A list like this is European law.

For the UK i found http://www.tpsonline.org.uk/tps/index.html that says:

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And when I moved to this house, I registered with the TPS. In consequence, the only cold calls I get (10 a day is not uncommon) are from companies calling from the Philippines or India. I can only deduce that the previous occupants had got onto a number of "sucker lists". What the half-life of these lists is, I don't know, but it certainly seems to be more than a year.

http://egbg.home.xs4all.nl/counterscript.html

In Belgium you can add yourself to the http://www.robinsonlist.be/ and not get any calls anymore. This needs to be refreshed after two years. A list like this is European law.

For the UK i found http://www.tpsonline.org.uk/tps/index.html that says:
It is a legal requirement that all organisations (including charities, voluntary organisations and political parties) do not make such calls to numbers registered on the TPS unless they have your consent to do so.

Also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Do_not_call_list for a few other countries.

Here are a couple of good opt-outs for the UK:

Telephone Preference Service - no more junk phone calls.
http://www.tpsonline.org.uk/tps/

Mail preference service - no more junk mail (snailmail).
http://www.mpsonline.org.uk/mpsr/

Anyone got any more?

I don't get this DNC, as I am not from the US.

So, (1)I don't wanna do business with telemarketers. (2)I register on the DNC so they won't call me. (3)They call me, because I might still be interested...

Doesn't calling the DNC defeat it's purpose? I registered there because I'm not interested in buying anything over the phone, why would you call me?

I don't understand it either. The UK equivalent to the DNC list, the TPS, is paid for by the industry to save them calling people who aren't interested in their services.

UK folk:

Stop telemarketer phone calls by registering with the telephone preference service:
          http://www.tpsonline.org.uk/tps/

Also, stop your junk mail by registering with the Mail Preference service:
          http://www.mpsonline.org.uk/mpsr/

I don't know about anywhere else but, here in the UK, I've found it to be very effective. Before I registered I was getting 2-3 calls a night, now I get none, yep, none at all.

The UK Telephone preference service states in their FAQ that Residential or Sole Trader numbers do not need to be renewed, however corporate numbers (for corporations who do not want to be bothered by other corporations making unsolicited sales calls) do need to renew their CTPS subscription every year.

Interestingly, they ask that if you move, but maintain the same telephone number, to contact them. It may be implied from this (although I have found no evidence) that ceased telephone numbers are removed from the list in some automated telco-DMA manner, which would make sense (but since when as making sense had anything to do with real life?)

Interestingly, the Telephone Preference Service is a supression list service maintained by the direct marketing association, but is a regulatory requirement specified in the Privacy and Electronic Communcations (EC Directive) Regulations 2003 which states that it is OFCOM's (the regulator) responsibility to maintain such a list.

Confused? I am... (although having been a TPS subscriber on all my lines for some years, it does appear to work).

I've been doing this for years but you got one of the steps wrong.

1. Rip up their marketing material and put it to one side. Don't fold it up as they can then use it again. Also try not to send the same company their own stuff back.

2. Cram the envelope with bits of ripped up mail. If the company is a persistent offender then make get a big envlope, fill it full of crap and sellotape the envelope to it (if they want it delivering they'll have to pay extra to receive it)

3. Alternatively use the envelope to send some marketing literature of your own. Personally I use Subgenius literature.

4. Put envelope in the post.

Anyone marketing crap to me with a pre paid reply envelope simply gets a load of crap sent back to them. And thankfully we have the telephone preference service in England so I now get zero telemarketing calls.

Helps keep the post service in work too !

But then, I'm not in the US. Here in the UK it's illegal to make unsolicited direct marketing calls to people who've registered with the Telephone Preference Service. (There's a corresponding service for faxes, too.)

I'm registered, and it works! I get unwanted calls only every few months. (Where they're from the UK, the very mention of the TPS normally causes them to ring off. Though I did have a nice discussion with one local company who'd clearly never heard of it but were asking all about it, and gave the strong impression of being about to change their marketing practices accordingly. In fact, the really really annoying ones are, predictably enough, American companies who call here for some reason and are apparently not bound by the TPS...)

So no, I don't screen calls. I haven't even got around to getting a phone capable of displaying the caller ID...

The TPS mostly works (Register now! 0845 07 007 07 or http://www.tpsonline.org.uk/tps/). However, some calls still come through (e.g. the notorious "you have won a holiday, press 1 now" calls that come from the US).

Some companies called after the theoretical cut-off date, despite being told repeatedly not to call (Toucan Telecom, this means you. Why would I want a phone company that sides with the telemarketers? Also, why, when calling do you say "you are going to recieve XYZ call offer with no obligation?" Is this to trick me into signing up?). However, these calls seem to have pretty much dried up.

We've had it for years; it's the Telephone Preference Service and you can sign up online.

It's called the telephone preference service

...we have the Telephone Preference Service with whom you can register and cut down on telemarketing calls. It does not work with those pesky market research/survey calls, however.

They are a real nuisance, especially that alleged "random dial" business (which I think should be made a criminal offence). I was once random-dialled three times in a weekend. And I still haven't won the lottery.

(On the other hand, I do have a small modicum of sympathy for the poor bugger on the other end of the line. Let's face it: it must be one shitty deal, and I think a lot of them are students trying to work off a debt.)

This is less common in the UK because it costs more to call mobiles than land lines, and less of an irritation because it costs nothing to receive a 'phone call or text. If it is irritating you register with the TPS and you have legal recourse against anyone 'phoning to with unsolicited sales or marketing calls. Unsolicited commercial SMS is already illegal under the Privacy and Electronic Communications EC Directive, and so you already have legal recourse there.

See the Telephone Preference Service for great justice.

They're back ... those pesky telemarketing calls, after nearly two years of peaceful, interruption-free dinners.

They never went away; during that time, they were calling Europe.

Residents in the UK, Holland, Denmark, Finland, Spain and several other countries are being targetted by telemarketers with the old "You've won a holiday" story; and their national Do Not Call registers, appear powerless to stop the calls. e.g. The UK TPS).

To make matters worse the victims often don't have a clue about the American legal system and therefore have great difficulty in getting any money back when they realise they've not won a sausage.

I know all this becuase

1. they called me in the UK, and I happened to blog it and consequently...
2. I've grown very weary of hearing from Europeans telling me they've been conned, asking me what to do and basically begging for advice that I'm not qualified to give.

So, rather than decreasing the restrictions, if the Slashdot readership has suggestions on how we can increase them so they have international effect, then many thousands of Europeans will probably want to have your babies, or at the very least promise not to phone you at dinner time to say thanks.

In fact, apart from that, the only cold calls I seem to get are from the USA...

Or, if you are in the UK join the telephone preference service. That seems to prevent telemarketers, and you can add your mobile to stop getting junk texts.

Well if you're in the UK then you're in luck: the Telephone Preference Service (TPS) is remarkably effective, or at least has been for me.

Recommended by a friend who works at a local telecoms firm, I was rather sceptical but surprisingly it's cut out ALL of those annoying Sunday morning pre-recorded messages, and we've not had a single marketing call since (touch wood!). I signed up work's fax number, too, and we've seen a massive reduction in junk faxes - esp. those premium-rate joke/vote/prank ones. It doesn't work for SMS texts, but that's 'cause they're illegal in Europe, anyway. Might be worth a try?

You seem to be in the UK, so... Are you registered with the TPS? If not do so. It only cuts out the semi-legitimate ones, but that is a supprisingly proportion, got me doen from one every day or so to one every week.

Then make sure you have caller ID and don't answer calls from hidden numbers (unless you work at home and use that line for work, in which case you have to take your chances in working hours. Sigh!). Your friends shouldn't be hiding their identity from you, so this filters out almost all of the rest of the telesales and `surveys'.

Could try report the name of the company here, however as you said you think neither are true, I dunno if it will do much good.

On a related note, since signing up to the UK telephone preference service (UK do not call list), I've had maybe three unsolicited phone calls in the last 6 months (was also a holiday company but was saying I'd won a holiday to florida all 3 times), compared to around 10 a day before that, so it seems to be working here.

If you haven't done so, sign your mobile number (as well as your landline) up to TPS - I did that and haven't had a single SMS spam for months now...

Have a look at UK Mail Preference Service, also see Fax preference service and Telephone preference service. I've found these to be effective blockers.

The key elements of their success are:

• It is unlawful to contact an individual on the lists without their prior consent.
• It costs money to get the data (e.g. GBP 3750 for the full fax file, GBP 375 for small number of area codes) or to get an official registration that a third party is filtering the list for you. (You could avoid paying by individually asking everyone on your list, so this is not a compulsory fee.)
• It's easy for customers to complain by mail or on the web. That costs an offender time and money to investigate as well as a possible fine.
• The businesses providing the goods or services are ultimately liable.

So far there is not the same backing for email. The US Direct Marketing Association's eMPS service provides a limited service for honest suppliers, but does not have the legal teeth of TPS, MPS or FPS.

I'm aware that trans-national issues could cause some problems of using a Do Not Spam list within another country. However, for most non-electronic services it's unlikely that most trans-national advertising would be profitable. From the UK I'm not going to buy US inkjet carts, US student loans, Taiwanese products that I can't even read - so such emails are a waste of time to the seller. A properly filtered list could even be a business advantage to a bulk emailer or their customers.

It's completely legal to telemarket in Europe. In the UK, we have had a Do Not Call list (the Telephone Preference Service) for quite some time.

It's only illegal for a telemarketer to call a number on the list.

I'm on the UK's do-not-call list http://www.tpsonline.org.uk

I had 1 call since Sept 2004, and the TPS is actively pursuing my complaint regarding that call, seeing as it was a criminal offence to make it.

The also handle SMS spam complaints too, now that that is illegal also.

There's an opt out list for junk snail mail in the UK. It helps a bit.

I registered on the UK's do not call list (a list that's not exactly advertised)

http://www.tpsonline.org.uk

I was totally fed up with the weekly telesales calls.

I registered in September 2002. I've had the letter on my desk ever since, ready to complain.

It was not until today (nice synchronicity) that I got my first sales call.

The sales drone thought I was pretty interested in the call, asking for their address and telephone number and the exact nature of the 'wonderful special offer'. Of course, what I was doing was getting the drone to tell me the details required to fill in the online complaint form.

She sounded genuinely shocked when I said "Thank you, I feel it is only fair to inform you that you are in breach of the Telecommunications (Data Protection & Privacy) Regulations 1999 and as such have just been reported to the TPS".

hehe well worth the wait :)

I'm not saying this is evidence that people are ignoring, and possibly even abusing the TPS, but it certainly seems that way from here.

Having said that, I've worked out a good tactic against them. They call up and say "Is that Mr. Jones?" (you know immediately that it's a marketing waste of time call by the tone of voice and the fact that no one but a very few friends uses this number). I say "I'll just go and get him for you", and then leave the phone off the hook and go and continue what I was doing before I was rudely interrupted ... Return half an hour later and put the phone back on the hook.

Rich.

That's right. I never get any direct sales calls. Ever.

It works for us - I hope it can work for you too.

Quoting directly from the site:
"Under Government legislation introduced on 1 May 1999 It is unlawful to make unsolicited direct marketing calls to individuals who have indicated that they do not want to receive such calls.

You can either do this by contacting companies directly and asking them not to phone you or you can register with a central service (The Telephone Preference Service) to stop all such calls."

Here are the links that you want:

Telephone - http://www.tpsonline.org.uk/
Fax - http://www.fpsonline.org.uk/
Post - http://www.mpsonline.org.uk/
Email - http://www.dmaconsumers.org/emps.html

The first three are pretty effective, but as to how effective a national email preference service can be combatting an international problem... Well we all know the answer to that one.

In the UK there is something similar called the TPS (Telephone Protection System)

No, its t'other way about, as long as companies like Powergen, Sky and the like can make extra sales with these underhand tactics, they will continue to exploit agents to flog customers with unwanted goods. But we don't have to put up with it, anyone in the UK can sign up with the TPS (our equivalent of the US DNC list, but one that works) and sue the pants off any of these companies.

The TPS's site states it's compulsory for phone calls: "Under Government legislation introduced on 1 May 1999 It is unlawful to make unsolicited direct marketing calls to individuals who have indicated that they do not want to receive such calls."

Junk texts are being banned under the new spam laws.

Also, you might try making a complaint to ICSTIS, the premium rate number regulator.

They can, IMO, punish junk texters using this portion of their rules:

2.8 PROMOTION BY NON-PREMIUM RATE SERVICES Wherever a premium rate service promotes, or is promoted by, a non-premium rate electronic communications service, both services will be considered as one where, in the opinion of ICSTIS, it is reasonable to do so.

The UK already has a don't call list, the Telephone Preference Service

Using "free speech" rights to quash the list in America is, in my opinion, an abuse of the constitution. Mind you, it's not the first time it's been mangled and abused for the benefit of some interested party.

While people get all kinds of junk mail, nobody's calling for a "do not mail" list.

1. Emmigrate to the United Kingdom
2. Get a British phone number
3. Use this wonderful service to make sure I never get any calls from telemarketers again...

I joined the TPS ( Telephone Preference Service) in the UK - hey presto, 20 calls a week, down to zero. Now I don't get any calls. :( Somebody ring me :(
But I miss the fun of being as rude and as crude as you like to the female telemarketters. Never stopped them calling though.

when is this going to be applied in euroland?

In the UK, about 4 years ago. Until I'm convinced there is a cross-border cold calling problem to fix, I think it is best solved at the national level.

I get quite a lot of "You have won £500, please call this (premium rate) number to claim" spam. Since so much of it is identical, it would be trivial for my provider (Vodafone) to block it all, simply by scanning for any identical message sent out to more than say 100 people. But they aren't interested - I had a long dialogue with their customer "services" people and they don't seem to want to bother. Registering with the UK telephone preference service helps a bit, but the only other alternative is to ask the provider to totally disable SMS.

I like the sound of this. Defining Spam would be a problem.

If you could prove that there is either no way of requesting an end to the spam or that it didn't work when you clicked on the link then that might stand up in court.

If you still get spam then you should be able to forward it onto some Government organisation who would deal with the company with an army of beurachrats.

Here in the UK, we have a good system for stopping unsolicited phone calls and text (SMS) messages. It is called TPS (Telephone Preference Service). You basically register your number(s) with this organisation and marketeers aren't allowed to use that number. If they do you can report it, they can check phone records or something and fine them something like £5,000. This system does work.

Maybe send all those junk-mailers invoices for royalties?

Alternatively if you're in UK, you can register with the Mail [Fax|Phone) Preference Services, I have and it works.

Mail Preference Service
Phone Preference Service
Fax Preference Service

Whilst these are private sector they are subject to oversite by the UK Data Protection Commissioner.

Just because some comments seem slightly in awe of the house of Lords, Lord Sainsbury is the owner of a large national supermarket (my local one enjoys gouging the prices under the auspices of being an 'express' store, but that's another matter).

Lord Sainsbury is a major benefactor or the current governing party (the Labour party) and as a result is the UK science minister, which I'm sure doesn't cause a conflict of interest for GMO food, which his shops don't sell.

He's also part of the government who's education secretary wants to cut funding of purely academic study whilst increasing reaserch into "baltic studies". Lucky he's already done his tour of two of the best universities in the country.[sorry, rant, being paid less than minimum wage for research sucks.]

Not to be a conspiracy theorist but a general election and possible euro referendum will be coming soon,the Labour party is in debt in fact and have passed exemptions based on donations in the past (some have been refunded and exemptions rescinded (sp?)) so watch for the donations..

Lord Mackie is the Liberal Democrat spokeperson for Scotland (a bit like Canada, cold), other than beind old and a career politican he seems ok.

On the subject of junk faxes, this was discusse in June 98, probably as a result of an EU directive (yay EU) 97/66/ec , as a result the telephone preference service TPS was created, which IIRC is a not a law-enforced scheme but is an advertising industry creation.

Anyway, it ain't over till the fat wallet sings, and I can see this being tacked on to the national I.D card scheme or privacy/piracy laws to pacify us.

42 eh. so that's what the human race was created for by the mice, to find the critical doubling speed of spam :)

BB

Lady Saltoun of Abernethy: My Lords, do the Government have any plans to restrict unsolicited faxes? My fax paper is always being wasted by people who send me faxes I do not want.

Fax, too: Fax preference service

You missed the fax preference service.

Useful when you get fax calls on a new land line from a commercial fax bureau. More than a little annoying at 4am in the morning.

• The Mailing Preferences Service for direct mail. Remember to sign up and block the names of you, your family, your dog, the previous owner's dog etc.
• The Telephone Preferences Service is the phone equivalent. Never really got much direct calling anyway, but I've had none since signing up for this.

Both services take about three months to fully kick in following registration.

There's a loophole in the mailing one though, and a comment in another thread some time ago mentioned a way round it. Junk mail may still be delivered to 'The Occupier' by the Royal Mail. Someone a while ago mentioned there was a service to stop this too - haven't been able to find that one. Anybody know?

Cheers,
Ian

Hey,

in the UK there is a opt-out system in the form of the TPS (Telecomunication Protection System) to stop people doing this sort of thing.

You can sign up online, here.

Michael