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FTC Announces Crackdown on Do Not Call Violators
Tech.Luver writes "The Federal Trade Commission today announced a law enforcement crackdown on companies and individuals accused of violating the requirements of the National Do Not Call Registry, resulting in six settlements collectively imposing nearly $7.7 million in civil penalties, along with an additional complaint that will be filed in federal district court.
The actions, brought by the Department of Justice on the FTC's behalf, are against companies ranging from adjustable bed seller Craftmatic Industries, to alarm-monitoring provider ADT Security Services and lender Ameriquest Mortgage Company. To date, consumers have put more than 145 million numbers on the Registry, indicating they do not want to receive calls from telemarketers at home."
http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2007/10/dnctestimony.shtm
Make sure you contact your congress critter about the permanency of the DNC list.
Either that or just make sure to register again in 5 years.
Go here.
Weeks of coding saves hours of planning.
no doubt everyone's going to start moaning about how the government is yet AGAIN censoring the activities of upstanding all-american companies... aren't they?
Hardly censorship, and if you are trying to point out some sort of hypocricy, you are on weak footing
You might also note: companies are no allowed to drive around at 1am with a giant bullhorn aimed at homes, selling their products. CENSORSHIP!?!? No.
I don't know about anywhere else but, here in the UK, I've found it to be very effective. Before I registered I was getting 2-3 calls a night, now I get none, yep, none at all.
init 11 - for when you need that edge.
NGO/charities aren't the only exemption in the law. The thing is so full of loopholes it looks like Swiss Cheese. For example, the DNC list has an exemption for anyone a company has dome business with in the past year or so. Of course, doing business hasn't been defined but that's just a technicality. In short, they tried to make opt-out the default for telemarketing just like they did with spam. Worse, it can take up to a year after you put yourself on the list for it to take effect. The Do-Not-Call list is one of the biggest publicity stunt Congress has pulled in a decade. Nothing more. the only thing this gets is the most blatant phone spammers.
This is a sig. This is only a sig. Had this been an actual sig you would have been informed where to tune for more sigs.
The problem now is the charity exemption. Years ago I don't recall receiving anywhere near the charity solicitations that I do now. Charities seem to be popping up out of the woodwork.
For example, it used to be you'd get a call from a real local police person once a year, asking to donate to their fund, and receive tickets to their annual comedy show or some such where you could meet the actual people. Now there's the police safety education fund, the police widows fund, the police families fund, the police community fund, the state police fund, etc. etc. (I'm making up some of these names since I don't remember them, but you get the idea), most of which seem to have nothing to do with the local police dept and are obviously being made from telemarketing centers. Some of them offer official stickers to put on your house door or your car, with the unstated implication that it might be good to have them if you're stopped, or worse it might be bad not to have them... And double all this for the firemen's funds. Never mind the innumerable "special olympics".
I'm all for helping my local police, but this is ridiculous. I know some people have no trouble brushing them off, and I force myself to do that too, but with that twinge of guilt that some widow may now starve because of me (even though rationally I suspect it's a scam) - and I imagine many nice aunts and grandmothers are easily sucked into their pitches.
I know, call screening and all that. Unfortunately I'm an old-fashioned person who tends to answer the phone when it rings. On the other hand, I've come to recognize the few seconds of silence after I say "hello", and then the sudden telemarketing background noise when their computer switches me into the next free telemarketer. *Plonk*.
I feel it necessary to say that there is another important drawback. I used to work as a telemarketer and we would take the DNC list the government gave us and PURPOSEFULLY call the people on the list, because we figured they were suckers. We received very few complaints, and a lot of money from these people. Remember, if you're on the DNC list and you're being called regularly, be sure to find out the name of the company that called you and contact your Attorney General. The AG will at the least impose a fairly hefty several thousand dollar fine against the company that did it.
I use this often seems to work nicely.
http://www.whocalled.us/
I've had a couple calls from them and when I ask to speak with a supervisor, I get hung up on. They also list their number in the recording where you can call back, which prompts you to leave a voice mail or to hold on to talk to a representative. I think I called back about 25 times, each time holding for a minute and requesting to speak to a supervisor, each time I was hung up on. Oh the fun of Skype-Out calling the telemarketers wondering who is calling THEM! =)
"Keep at least 3-6 full bottles of hard alcohol on hand, a 2 week resignation notice,..." - Poetmatt
Actually, no. In the years since the DNC list, I have had 1 and only 1 telemarketer call. It works.
I still have more fans than freaks. WTF is wrong with you people?