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Australian Do Not Call Register

Posted by Zonk on from the still-waiting-for-the-shoot-the-messenger-button dept.

green-e writes "Looks like us Aussies are finally introducing a national 'Do Not Call' register. Under the plan all telemarketers would be banned from calling homes after 8pm on weekdays and 5pm on weekends. Companies that call a household on the register could face fines of up to $220,000 (AU), which could be legislated early next year. About time something like this should be set up. How effective has it been in the US ?"

6 of 252 comments (clear)

  1. $220000? by Biogenesis · · Score: 4, Funny

    What's up with the fine amount? $200k + GST?

    --
    ...just so Google finds it.
  2. Just use this by mattjb0010 · · Score: 5, Funny

    The telemarketer counter-script.

    1. Re:Just use this by drsmithy · · Score: 3, Funny
      Telemarketing is a shitty job that no one really wants to do. I did it when I was in college because I needed the cash. Did I go whistling to work just hoping I could annoy some people at home? No.

      Mate, that's pretty desparate for cash. Why didn't you choose something relatively respectable, like drug pusher or illegal immigrant sweatshop overseer ?

  3. The ultimate geek prank phone call by strider44 · · Score: 3, Funny

    (Ring up someone you really hate at midnight sunday night)

    *Ring Ring*

    Hi, I'm from Microsoft. Have you heard about the exciting new things Windows now has to offer your business or home?

  4. Re:As an Australian I can honestly say by minorproblem · · Score: 4, Funny

    I ussually just start talking in swedish and they go away pretty quickly, works with those hobos who ask for money also.

  5. Re:I have a better solution... by meringuoid · · Score: 3, Funny
    ... keep an airhorn near the phone.

    That I like, but we could do better.

    I'm thinking it maybe wouldn't be too difficult to hack together a system to sit between your phone and the socket which would do nothing but play a really loud noise onto the phone line at the press of a button.

    You might even have a menu to choose from. Let's see, how shall I interrupt the telemarketer's script this time? 'Airhorn, v loud' - good. 'White Noise' - nice, might make them think their system's broken. 'Beep, Sinusoidal, Annoyingly High Pitch' - a possibility. 'Baby Crying' - cruel! 'Barney Theme Song' - perhaps excessively sadistic. 'Fingernail On Blackboard Noise' - they don't deserve that yet. No, I think this telemarketer gets the 'Burst of Incomprehensible Dialogue From Puni Puni Poemy'. * click *

    And having built it, post a webpage and submit to /. so we can all applaud.

    --
    Real Daleks don't climb stairs - they level the building.