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National Do Not Call List Opens for Registrations
prockcore writes "The National Do Not Call Registry is up and running. Sign up so most telemarketers cannot call you starting October 1st. There are exemptions though, like for charities and political organizations." Note that many of the states which have opened their own registries will be sharing that data with the national list, so you may not have to re-register - check and see what your state is doing.
I'm not particularly pleased that the US government now has a growing database tying email addresses to phone numbers.
(for those that didn't bother to read it, they require a valid email address to register your phone number online)
I guess I'll be creating a throw-away yahoo or hotmail address for this...
-S
--- What parts of "shall make no law", "shall not be infringed", and "shall not be violated" don't you understand?
But, signing up now seems a bit absurd. It would be like giving the telemarketters three months time to use my number until then. I think that I might just wait until, oh say, October 1st.
and the Irishman took the fly in his hands and yelled, "spit it out!"
It was down before the "there will be a story here" tag went up on /., so there's no blaming this site for it.
this doesn't affect market researchers calling you. Don't get me wrong i'm not complaining, but it would be great if we could somehow get them under the umbrella.
Its an annoyance, most people would agree, but a drain on resources? No.
If people decide to invest in these telemarketing companies, thats their perrogative. If people bought nothing from them they would fail on their own.
The problem is the few people who DO buy their crap. Those workers still got paid and kept the economy moving, even if what they were doing isn't popular.
I dont need the no-call, because i generally screen my calls on an answering machine(home) and look at the number before answering(cell).
I can't wait to see companies buying time on charity organization's phone calls. Imagine this:
1) Company makes donation to charity
2) Charity promises to advertise company during charity's fund raising calls
3) Company claims donation on their taxes
4) ????
5) Profit!!! (or in the case of the charity: Non-Profit!!!!!)
I'm hoping this will work better than the do-not-call list in Texas. Maybe other Texans have had better luck, but I'm still swamped with calls that fall under the "legal" umbrella (such as shady real estate dealings that somehow claim they fall under the non-profit clause). Hey, at least the national list doesn't make you fork out a couple bucks to sign up, unlike the Texas list.
>> "What would the robut do? Frame someone!"
Somehow I think that had a little more to do with it (being broadcast to millions nationwide) than being posted on
I noticed that the pages are
according to netcraft:
There is much cruelty in the universe, John.
Yeah, we seem to have the tour map.
i filled out their online form 2 hours before this slashdot story was posted, and i haven't gotten an email from them yet
;-)
is this in line with everyone else's experiences?
i'm not actually surprised, their site is hammered, i'm just wondering if i am the rule or the exception
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
The do-not-call list is a nice idea, but it is going to be worthless due to some exceptions. For example, any company that can affiliate itself with a political or a charity organization is automatically allowed to contact you. That brings me to a question: why does the law allow for political and charity organizations to do telemarketing on the first place? If I want to donate money to a charity, I will do so without them telling me. If I want to support a politician and/or a party, I will do so upon my free will. Also, telemarketing companies will not give up their business easily; I suspect that we are going to face more spam in our inboxes and flyers in our mail. Moreover, by registering our numbers with the government we provide it with a list of valid phone numbers: expect more political soliciting. Unless there is a way to stop all unwated phone calls related to telemarketing/charity/politics people will not win.
You do realize that any product you buy will now have a clause stating that by buying or registering the product you also sign up to receive special offers from them, their affiliates and whomever else they sell your information to? Explicit permission can be given in many ways, but few of them are actually explicit.
Wax-Museum Fire Results In Hundreds Of New Danny DeVito Statues
... won't the telemarketing companies simply be able to move across the border and set up shop there? toronto's already a hotbed for telemarketing boiler rooms calling across canada and the states, this just might make things worse here.
I just had another thought.
/.er is probably thinking right now that it's less than ten billion total phone numbers (by the time you screen out non-US area codes, toll-free and service numbers it's probably on the order of 6 or 7 billion), a bunch of random domains and e-mails can be created to add EVERY SINGLE phone number to the list, and even automate the e-mail reply with a procmail line. (Actually, since business phone numbers aren't covered by the DNC list, it's probably less than 3 billion possible numbers.)
Some enterprising young
Don't.
No, really.
If the registry is a complete set of the US phone system, some telemarketer will sue claiming that there's false data in there, and that the majority of the people on the list never opted out.
They'll have to scrap the whole thing, and start over again with an even-more-invasive registration procedure.
Design for Use, not Construction!
As many have pointed out, telemarketing works. The problem isn't that people buy this crap. Humanity is what it is. We can not abandon the the small tail of the bell curve for the sake of those that fit under 2 deviations. As much as I would love to identify stupid people and exile them to a remote island. We all become elitist going in that direction. It's that we push this crap and encourage it in our "culture". Well... let's be honest. It is our culture. And therein lies our problem and thus the justification for forces to discourage telemarketing.
Telemarketers prey on the lowest common denominator of human behavior. Encouraging its widespread use acclimates larger percentages of our population as well as impressionable people.
Ex: I couldn't care less about them and their personal purchasing habits and what stupid things they choose to spend their money on (this also goes for personalities that gravitate toward telemarketing practices and what they sell). Only problem is I have to live next door to these idiots. Had I children, so would they. I fear the idea that my kids would would even be in the same country as their kids and start learning their habits just from even a casual observance (its far more than that with television. *sigh*). Obviously only a small example of the impacts. But you get the picture. To put it more simply...
There's overflow and trickle down from anything that's this prevalent in our society as telemarketing. And all the things your mind conjures up when you think of the word.
Isn't that scarey? You still want to continue saying that it's not your problem as long as you don't have to deal with it because you have practices and behaviors that limit your exposure? I get NO junk mail. My email address is a small mom/pop shop ISP unknown to any spammers. I have no land-line. My cell phone is older than the practice of telemarketing, doesn't even have block CallerID or Unlisted. I don't get bothered. But this problem and the direction it is taking in general still concerns me.
"Last one in is a rotten goblin!" - Kepp
I bet there are some websites that wish there was such a thing as a national do not /. list. I have seen some people post really nasty messages after a site was linked by /. staff. Such as this one. For about a week this website had a "F*** You /." message on it.
Yell & scream & rant & rave... it's no use... you need a shaaaave ~ Bugs Bunny
Until October 1, telemarketers are free to call without checking the "do not call" list.
You know that these marketing companies are going to be pressuring their clients to jump on their service before the deadline, to get the most bang. Expect a deluge of sales calls in September.
There has been much discussion about whether it's worth it to shut off your land line and go totally cellular or to just put up with the telemarketers. I think there's a relatively simple solution most people are overlooking...turn off your ringers.
Giving up my land line wouldn't really be an option for me, my cablebox uses it, my home burglar/fire alarm uses it, TiVO uses it, and ADSL uses it so giving it up really isn't an option. A couple other posts mentioned services, pizza guys and UPS, who specifically require a land line for confirmation. So, I kept my phone line and only turn on the ringer when I are specifically expecting a call on that line, the rest of the time the ringer is off and anyone who wants to reach us uses our cell numbers.
This way I have the best of both worlds, all my equipment that needs a phone line has one, we can talk to our family and friends whenever we want, and telemarketers get endless ringing that we never hear.
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity -RAH
<html>
<head>
<title>National Do Not Call Registry</title>
<meta content="Microsoft Visual Studio 7.0" name="GENERATOR">
<meta name="keywords" content="National Do Not Call Registry, telemarketers, FTC, Mobile Phone, Home Phone, Registration, Do Not Call"
<meta content="C#" name="CODE_LANGUAGE">
<meta content="JavaScript" name="vs_defaultClientScript">
<meta content="http://schemas.microsoft.com/intellisens
<link rel='stylesheet' type='text/css' href="css/style.css">
<script src="WebTrendScript.js" language="Javascript1.1"></script>
</head>
Which currently doesn't show up in Mozilla *at all*.
Now does Microsoft intentionally make their Visual Studio stuff (not to mention the latest PowerPoint, etc.) generate almost-HTML that don't display in Mozilla? You be the judge...
- "History shows again and again how nature points out the folly of men" -- Blue Oyster Cult, 'Godzilla'
In order for the FCC/FTC to enforce the do-not-call list, they are going to have to get complaints from us the consumer. When filing a complaint, the consumer must be able to report either the company name or telephone number that belongs to the telemarketer. Even though its the law that telemarketers need to provide this information up-front, often they don't. If the consumer doesn't know who to complain about, then how is the FCC/FTC going to impose fines on any telemarketer?