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FCC Announces First Do-Not-Call Citation
An anonymous reader writes "The FCC will announce on Thursday December 18, its first enforcement action for violations of the new national Do-Not-Call list. The perp is a mortgage broker (big users of telemarketing, junk faxes, and spam) in California -- CPM Funding, Inc. No fines (yet) since the FCC can only impose fines on telemarketers after they have had one citation letter (which this is). If, perhaps, a common carrier was to violate however (can you say MCI, AT&T, etc) they can be fined up to $11,000 right off the bat.... no warnings. (The action against AT&T a couple of months ago was for other violations, not violating the new National DNC list.)"
https://www.donotcall.gov
Will All Telemarketing Calls Stop If I Register?
Q: If I register my number on the National Do Not Call Registry, will it stop all telemarketing calls?
A: No. Placing your number on the National Do Not Call Registry will stop most telemarketing calls, but not all. Because of limitations in the jurisdiction of the FTC and FCC, calls from or on behalf of political organizations, charities, and telephone surveyors would still be permitted, as would calls from companies with which you have an existing business relationship, or those to whom you've provided express agreement in writing to receive their calls.
It may not be perfect, but I really do think the national registry is working. I have not had a single telemarketing call since then, and I was previously getting up to 20 calls a day! Some of this may have had to do with me treating callers rudely and putting them on hold until they hung up, since the number of calls did start to drop even before the list was in effect. Maybe telemarketing firms are finally taking a hint and realizing that nobody wants their worthless crap. Now if only we could make spammers do the same.