41 Million Sign Up for National Do-Not-Call List

ejbst25 writes "The first wave of the do not call registry sign up ends 8/31. There is plenty of news coverage but they say there is already over 41 million numbers registered."

Comments

not gonna do it.

[514x0r]

it's just another way for them to track me.

has anyone seen a size 7 1/4 tin foil hat around here?

Summarized

[TopShelf]

The whole story boils down to:

FROM: The American People
TO: The Telemarketing Industry

Fuck you.

Sincerely,
The American People

Re:Do-Not-Spam

[rylin]

Hi!
I run just such a service.

Please provide your email address so I can add it to the list.

Would you also like a copy of our daily news letter with funny jokes, links to herbal stores and mortgage help?

Useless...

[Bull999999]

I signed up for it but I still get calls from my in-laws.

Re:Useless...

[Odin's Raven]

Bull999999 quoth: I signed up for it but I still get calls from my in-laws.

Didn't you read the exemption list?

Brother-in-law: Bull, we're a little short on cash this month, could you lend us a bit to tide us over until payday?
DNC Status: Exempt, charity call

Brother-in-law: Bull, would you rather keep working in that dead-end programming job, or get a great job selling Amway products like I do?
DNC Status: Exempt, poll

Sister-in-law: Bull-wife, I don't know why you stay with that good-for-nothing man of yours. You ought to kick him out and look for a better partner. There's a guy in my AA meeting who's an ideal candidate.
DNC Status: Exempt, political campaign

Mother-in-law: Bull, my daughter deserves someone better than you.
DNC Status: Exempt during first 18 months of marriage (purchased product from caller).

great

[Cyn]

Excellent reminder slashdot - thanks - I'd hate to miss out with the deadline only 2 days away... now I'll just hop on over to the site.... oh hmm well it's not responding. Oh well, I'm sure it'll be back before the deadline - I mean, it's not like it got slashdotted.

Oh.

Argues for a National-Please-call list

[goombah99]

Given this is close to half the housholds in america, and is only the people with the energy to actually make the effort to register, it seem pretty clear that the default assumption should be opt-out not opt-in. Indeed I cant think of a clearey more convincing way to demonstrate this than this very fact.

The needs to be a national please-phone-spam me list. you could even make it valuable to telemarketers and raise money too by

1) selling this list to them.
2) having sub categories on the list for various types of calls the recipiuent welcomes such as

i) get rich quick
ii) Roofing companies only in your area this week
iii) "free" vacations in a condo time share.
iiii) changing your phone company
iv) call me if I'm already an instant winner

Re:In other news

[aardvarkjoe]

You've got me. What could be done with a database of email + phone numbers?

Now, what's really frightening is that somebody has created a database linking phone numbers with names and home addresses. Imagine all the horrible things that could be done with this.

Re:Cell Phone Number

[Anonymous Coward]

She must be pretty busy, between that and yelling down to the basement for you to clean it up.

Here is how one guy got 'em good...

[twoslice]

Tom Mabe

He went to a telemarketing convention and got a hotel room under an assumed name, dialed up rooms at random trying to sell them shit in the wee hours of the morning. He has produced a CD on it and it is quite funny to see telemarketers really pissed at him...

Got shell scripting?

[JiffyPop]

Am I the only person with a strong urge to write a program to put every number in the US on the list? :) A little wget in a loop, an email parser that waits for messages from register@donotcall.gov... would hardly be impossible.

That would be an incredibly huge finger to give the telemarketers

Re:Need help remembering

[mercuryresearch]

I remember it as well. I think this is the one:

http://www.xs4all.nl/~egbg/counterscript.html

Re:Hrmph. doesn't work for Canada it seems

[SandSpider]

I got an error on my area code when I tried to register.

I knew it! Even the Canadians don't know it's a different country!

=Brian

Re:This is a horrible idea

[El]

At the end of the day, you've taken away jobs and hurt the economy. That's why this is a bad idea.

That's why it's a bad idea to pass laws against those people that stand on streets asking for money, then screaming obscenities at the people that don't give them any... you see, if you make this illegal, than you've taken away these people's jobs and hurt the economy. Liquor stores and drug dealers in your city will be forced out of business! Think of the children!

Your freedom to swing your fist ends where my nose begins. Unsolicited callers are clearly infringing on MY rights. If you've got a business model that requires you to make cold calls to attract suckers, I would suggest that you don't have a business model, you've got an extortion racket.

Re:Yeah.

[All Names Have Been]

I know you hate telemarketing calls, and I hate them too but I work there to pay my bills...

I know you hate having your kneecaps pulled off with rusty pliers - I hate it too! - But the local mob boss said I had to and it pays my bills.

I wonder how much time I'd waste per day fucking around with your little "get me off the list" script. I get 12 calls a day from your peers. Seriously. It's so bad I don't answer the phone anymore unless I recognize the caller ID or someone I know leaves a message. The DNC registry can't come quick enough for me and I'll be glad when most of this "industry" of selling vinyl siding and double glazing goes tits up. Screw you all.