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U.S. National Do-Not-Call Registry is Law
extra88 writes "Bush has signed the
Do-Not-Call Registry into law. The registry will be run by the FTC and funded by fees collected from telemarketers. Telemarketers can be fined up to $11K for calling someone on the list. Politicians, surveys (loophole?) and charities are exempt from using the list. The FCC oversees certain industries (airlines, banks and phone companies) and will have to "buy in" to the registry for it to affect those industries. Slashdot covered this story when the bill went through House of Representatives."
Where do I sign up?
Surveys are indeed a loophole here. Since Indiana's do-not-call list went into effect (which is a MAJOR success), I have gotten some thinly veiled "research survey" calls, which offer a free sample of a product as the compensation for participating. They're pretty few and far between, though.
I still can't believe that a legislature actually passed a reasonably effective and useful law, despite the opposition of lobbying groups!
Stop by my site where I write about ERP systems & more
Now if We can just get a "Do Not Spam" List to go with the "Do Not Call" list.
First Post?
People Talking in Movie shows.. people smoking in bed.. people voting republican.. GIVE THEM A BOOT TO THE HEAD!
I read the article . . . how do I sign up? ("Available this summer" means what exactly???)
hi, I like pancakes -.-- -.-- --..
I would personally like such a thing considering my volume of spam, but aside from anyone who lives by spamming, does anyone find issues with the extended concept?
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
I just signed up to the UK version, www.tpsonline.org.uk. It takes a month to work its way into the system, then I'm promised a big reduction in unsolicited phone calls, currently running at around 2-3 a day. As I have to work from home some weeks, so this will be a great relief. I'm glad you guys have it too.
Macka
I have actually received a telemarketing call that went much like this. Not bragging, just reminding everyone that many sales calls may be worded as surveys in the future.
If you fall off a building, go real limp, because maybe you'll look like a dummy and people will be like hey, free dummy
My current solution is to use an auto-attendant wherein a caller needs to press my extension number to ring me. Now, their machine talks to my machine, and I never even hear a phone ring.
But I'd still like to cause them some pain.
It's easy, I just use my cell phone for EVERYTHING. I never answer the home line. If I get a telemarketer (phone company, political or other wise) I explain that this is a cell phone, and I pay by the min for incomming and out going calls and as such is it illegal for them to call this number. I also ask for the company name, address and the referance number of this call that I may send them a bill for the charges of this call, which they are now legaly responsible. I only had to do that 3 times, and even with out actually sending them a bill, the calls stopped. :)
Pickpocketers, sheisters, and muggers were pretty upset when those industries were outlawed. But quite frankly if your business model is predicated upon annoying people, expect to get banned. Automated call machines were banned for exactly the same reason. Now that call-centers have become consolidated and automated enough to be a major nusiance, they rightfully should be too.
I'm glad the telemarketing industry is angry. Hopefully that means we will be rid of those leeches upon society.
Do something positive, and get back to us.
The ______ Agenda
I've made the mistake of donating to some charities, and now I get hammered with the charity telemarketers. They're just as bad as the credit card and long distance people.
It's sad that charities have been reduced to this.
If you are a good actor, you can look very convincing, even if you don't tell the truth... Don't pull this off though, if you're the kind that easily blushes ;-)
Second, you can take a photograph of your calling-line display.
Can be faked to easily. Especially if your telephone is able to substitute names for known numbers...
Third, if they leave a message on your answering machine, you can take a recording to court.
Such recording could have come from another telephone, which is not on the "do not call list". And besides, what stoopid telemarketer leaves a message on the answering machine, if this is a number he's not supposed to be calling...
Fourth, you can keep a log of unwanted calls you receive. This is better than your testimony alone, because it shows you are being careful and are making accurate records.
Who says the records are accurate?
Fifth, many telemarketing suits involve multiple calls. You can give the judge a list of people you spoke to, on what dates, what you told them, and so on. The combined facts make it very unlikely that the defendant did not call you as you claim, and you only need a preponderance of the evidence to prevail.
Agreed.
Sixth, you can ask your friends and neighbors if they received similar calls. Any telemarketer violating the do-not-call list is calling everyone, so you will find other witnesses to verify your report.
Also agreed. While the probability of one consumer lying might be high (at least, in the eyes of the unethical businessman...), the probability of 10 people making up the same story is incredibly low... unless they operate in collusion.
Seventh, if it gets to that point is important enough, you can subpoena their records and so on. But then you are into real discovery and may not be able to use small claims court.
And, depending on how they're systems are set up, this would have the beneficial side effect of crippling their operations if you subpoena enough of their equipment...
Here in Colorado, we implemented this about a year ago. It has helped. I no longer get calls saying to buy things. Instead, I get numerous calls from the republican and democratic party asking me to support their platform and send lots of money . They also tell me that the Libertarian party is a group of thugs who will allow the other party to get ahead (can't stand either as there is no difference).
Likewise, I get 2-5 calls a day from charity groups saying that we will be in your area looking for used articles. If I do not answer within 3 rings, they will hang up and try again in about 15 minutes.
Take your pick of which set of spam you want; businesses or charity/government.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
What I think should happen is that the phone company has a database that contains the do-not-call list. They also have a database that has known call centers (should be simple... any place that has a crap load of outgoing phone calls everyday would be on this list). Then every call that is made from any of these places checks the list. If the number being called is on the list, the call is not put through and the call is logged. At the end of the month, a report is generated and sent to whoever collects the penalty fees. This saves us from getting calls even though we are on the list, and keeps the enforcement simple and cheap.
How is it that one careless match can start a forest fire, but it takes a whole box to start a campfire?
All phone calls are logged to every number, always, caller-id or not; you can't necessarily get that info just by asking though. In my state, the Oregon Attorney General's office goes after the violator FOR you. I'm pretty sure they won't have any trouble getting records from the phone company if you tell him the date and time of the call. What is the telemarketer going to say to the evidence that they called you? "I was trying to call my Grandmother and dialed the wrong number." And the fine is $25-grand here. Or at least it was. I expect that the Fedral list will get rid of the state lists, though I have not read the law.
Don't moderate flamebait as Troll. Know the difference or you will be Meta-moderated.
This is probably just a means for the government to collect a list of 'dissidents'.
According to government statistics, there is a direct correlation between gun ownership, people who believe in 'real' freedom (not the PC fakey kind), and anti-telemarking activists.
You have been warned...
[ The Management ]
Lodragan Draoidh
The more you explain it, the more I don't understand it. - Mark Twain
It would be nice to think the Government cares about us little people getting "annoyed" with marketing calls, it seems it takes something more sinister to get a law like this through... I don't see how it will help though other than make folks aware of the difference between a con artist and a true salesman...
Sorry to say this folks, but the phone marketing people may be right about this one, all it will do is stop legitimate phone sales calls coming in...but the stuff that is really bad ($40 billion a year bad) will simply ignore the dumb list, or worse yet, abuse it, as so many people have pointed out... ugh.
-v
Just for fun I compiled "product byproduct's" source and ran it for a few minutes saving the output to a text file, which is 700M and never actually gets passed the 100 area code because after
//i and j start at 200 because there is no
//area code or prefix that start with 1 or 0
(100) 999-9999 the next number generated is
(100) 1000-0000
if you look at the second for loop in his code, you'll see that it checks the area code instead of the prefix
This will get you the desired results
#include <stdio.h>
int main()
{
int i, j, k;
for (i = 200; i <= 999; i++)
for (j = 200; j <= 999; j++)
for (k = 0; k <= 9999; k++)
printf("(%03d) %03d-%04d\n", i, j, k);
}
"the fax machine is nothing but a waffle iron with a phone attached to it." - Grandpa Simpson
Anyway, since telemarketers currently do not transmit Caller-ID information, I get no telemarketing calls. None. Zip. Nada.
Once telemarketers start transmitting Caller-ID information, Privacy Manager will be much less useful. But, if the national do-not-call list actually works, it will make up for it. Let's hope.
If you reply, do so only to what I explicitly wrote. If I didn't write it, don't assume or infer it.
I have always felt that abusing predictive dialers (by under-staffing the call center and simply hanging up on some percentage of your victims) was against the spirit of the law. Now it's against the letter of the law.
The FCC oversees certain industries (airlines, banks and phone companies) and will have to "buy in" to the registry for it to affect those industries.
Wonder if there will be companies that do (insert random thing) business but think to get themselves excluded by paying $1000 to become a "phone company" (a reseller of long distance service). If the FCC doesn't buy into the FTC's list, then such a company might have a loop hole and be able to share the data in own "division" of the company to it's others (ie. it's actual original business).
Problem with overseas telemarketing is it drives up the costs massively. The calls themselves are more expensive, the credit card processing is more expensive and the shipping is much more expensive.
If they have a US company do the credit cards or shipping, the FTC gets to go after the US company.