Is the Do Not Call System Working?

BrentRJones writes "I signed up for the Do Not Call registry the first day I heard of it, and I have to say that I have gotten very few telemarketers calling over the past couple of years. However, there now seems to be more calls that start, 'This is a survey...' or some other such excuse. I do not mind getting a few charity appeals or calls from those I have done business with in the past, but I do wish that I could avoid the political phone calls. I am curious what other Slashdot folks are experiencing, and I am also wondering if I say, 'Please remove from any list that you have.' when I am called, will this do any good?"

Comments

VOIP + spoofing caller ID

[140Mandak262Jamuna]

When the do not call lists started it worked for some time. Now a days I get blatant sales calls from (India mainly) and they spoof the caller ID system. I yell at them for violating the law, but they know they cant be caught. One option would be to listen to the pitch patiently and agree to buy whatever they are selling. Then they transfer you to some one in US for verification. When the actual vendor (usually it is DishNetwork or DirecTV in my case) comes on line, lodge a protest and threaten to call FCC. But so far I have not had the patience. So I just yell at them, call them names and hang up.

Re:Bastards

[TheWanderingHermit]

There's another loop hole that most people don't know about and I haven't seen posted here yet.

It expires after 5 years and, believe it or not, it's been around for 5 years.

I had gotten rid of most calls years ago by telling every one to put me on their do not call list. I also got a recording of the "out of order" signal the telco uses and put that on my answering maching, at the start of the tape, and that helped eliminate some calls. If I didn't recognize the number, I'd let the machine get it, and there were some numbers that I used to see show up often but without a message. The telco tone at the start of my tape eliminated some of them. They called once or twice more, got the tone, and stopped showing up. I also know time online is a major issue for marketers, so I'd talk some to death -- keep them on 10-15 minutes and not buy anything. That's way more time then they should spend on the phone even for a sale.

When the do-not-call registry went active, everyone in my family registered all our phone numbers. What few calls I'd still get stopped coming in. Then, a few months ago, I started getting some calls this summer, so I looked up the registry to see if there was a problem and found out that you have to re-register every 5 years to keep your number listed.

If you're getting more calls in the last few months, it's because your registration on the list expired.

Personally, I answer all the survey calls. That way I get to tell them my favorite radio staion and my preferences in movies and other topics they ask about. Considering how few geeks there are out there, I figure it's my way of making sure someone with my tastes gets counted. As for political calls, I can usually spot them on caller ID, so I pick up the phone, then hang up.

Re:Absolutely correct...

[TheRecklessWanderer]

The national do-not-call list will help keep the legit soliciters at bay. But the bad guys...well...international law is a bitch. International law really has nothing to do with do not call lists. It's all about treaties and human rights and international organizations and other cool things. International lawyers refer to legal systems within a country as "municipal", and municipal law has nothing to do with international law, except that a signatory to a treaty is required to have it's legal system enforce the articles in a treaty. That's why China never signed the treaties for human rights. Having said that, I hate telemarketers more than people who kick puppies.

Paul from the Prize Claim Center

[Zeinfeld]

I have received several calls from someone calling themselves 'Paul from the Prize claim center'. I put the number on my blog and I now get something like 50 people a day finding the site by searching for the telephone number.

There is also a Markus from some mortgage company doing the same thing.

In each case the outbound calls are from a robo-dialer that only starts if it gets a voice mail. When I called up the telephone number they gave I got a real person which was something of a suprise. They hung up when I pointed out that their operation was facing huge civil and criminal penalties.

What I should have done but haven't got round to yet was to dial up the number several times to work out how many people are working for them.