Slashdot Mirror
Do Not Call Listings to Expire in 2008
Ant writes "Yahoo! News report that the cherished dinner hour void of telemarketers could vanish next year for millions of people when phone numbers begin dropping off the national/United States (U.S.)'s Do Not Call list. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC), which oversees the list, says there is a simple fix. But some lawmakers think it is a hassle to expect people to re-register their phone numbers every five years. Numbers placed on the registry, begun in June 2003, are valid for five years. For the millions of people who signed onto the list in its early days, their numbers will automatically drop off beginning next June if they do not enroll again."
My mobile # is on the DNC list and I still get calls. I have filed complaints with them and still get the same people calling over and over again. Emperion Marketing (505 647 9618)is my worst offender. I keep getting calls from these asshats, though I have called them and told them to take me off the list. I have filed 4 complaints about them and it hasn't done a thing.
BTW, register your number here https://www.donotcall.gov/register/Reg.aspx
They have an email address associated with each phone number. Why can't they send out a reminder 6 months before your number's expiration so you can renew?
FYI- You can renew your Do Not Call registrations at any time, even if they are not about to expie. I renewed all my numbers today, despite some of them not expiring for over a year.
They don't grade fathers, but if your daughter's a stripper, you fucked up. --Chris Rock
What I described is the existing procedure, not necessarily what I want. In any case, the phone companies don't need to submit identifying information, just a list of phone numbers. And note that this information is publicly available anyhow, with somewhat more effort. The government can easily enough check whether a phone number has been changed, as can you.
0 0 1 1 * wget --post-data 'ctlACPH1:txtAreaCode=&ctlACPH1:txtPhone=&ctlEmail:txtEmail=&txtConfirmEmail=' https://www.donotcall.gov/Register/Reg.aspx
You could wrap the wget in an if-block to see if the year is divisible by 5, but I'm lazy.
Reid
The Right Reverend K. Reid Wightman,
I've moved twice in the past six years, both times I got an unpublished number. When a telemarketer called, they were informed that this was an unpublished number and to please put it on their DNC list. That brought all telemarketing calls to a screeching halt.
When I started my new job last year I moved to a new city and ordered a second land line phone number with distinctive ring for off duty support for work emergencies. Both numbers are unpublished. After the first couple of false alarms with telemarketers calling the "hot line", they stopped real fast.
It does not cost much more for unpublished numbers.
Eternity: will that be smoking, or non-smoking? I Corinthians 6:9-10
Probably almost everyone who doesn't move outside of a local exchange (that is, excluding people that rotate numbers because they are repeated targets of harrassment); I'd expect probably a sizable majority of people and a slightly smaller majority of phone numbers (as second and additional lines may be more transitory.)
It would make some sense to make it so that you registered through your phone service provider, and they pulled the listing of the database if the subscriber discontinued use of the number. It makes more sense than a fixed 5-year period, at any rate.
I started getting telemarketing calls again a couple months ago and reregistered all my numbers. I'd rather not have to, but it's worth the couple minutes involved. I get very little phone spam, mostly mortgage offers which I turn down by saying "It's illegal for you to be talking to me right now".