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."

Comments

Yeah!!!

[Jaster82]

Maybe the took that complaint I lodged 3 years ago seriously... It's about time this type of thing started happening.

Re:Yeah!!!

[magarity]

3 years seems a little excessive. OTOH, they wait for enough people to complain about a given source to make a large case before they bother to chase after the offenders. There's this number that sources from Ohio that calls my cell (that I put on the do not call list) every couple of months with a recording trying to sell me insurance, timeshares, etc. I report it every time but they haven't been shut down yet. sigh

5 Year Limit

[Misanthrope]

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.

Re:5 Year Limit

[Jaster82]

Thanks for the heads up! I'll have to actually write a good old fashioned snail mail letter to my senator here in Colorado... Stick it to 'em! Remember people, if you want to be taken seriously, snail mail is the only way to go.

Re:5 Year Limit

[Toutatis]

There is no need to register again. Someone will call you to remember you are unregistered.

Re:5 Year Limit

[goddidit]

Remember people, if you want to be taken seriously, snail mail is the only way to go. I think that in this case it could be actually better to call them. Repeatedly.

Re:5 Year Limit

[The Only Druid]

Prior restraint issues, among others, would appear. If companies were preemptively prevented from calling people, that amounts to a prior restraint without sufficient justification. However, with an opt-out list, companies are only prevented from calling those people who have explicitly requested such treatment. This way, the government hasn't restrained the companies a priori.

Re:5 Year Limit

[thePowerOfGrayskull]

Remember people, if you want to be taken seriously, snail mail is the only way to go. No. Post-911, Anthrax scare, etc. the best option is ALWAYS to call or fax, especially for the federal government. If you snail mail, your letter sits in communication purgatory where it is treated as if it is filled with explosives or toxins. Once it's been cleared, it could be weeks. I think GP's point was more in the direction of not using email if you want to be taken seriously.

To File a Complaint

[wildsurf]

Go here.

Re:Slashdot

[thefirelane]

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.

Freedom

[SamP2]

The freedom of speech includes the freedom not to listen.

These lists are good, but..

[eniac42]

Have one important drawback - they tend to apply only within the host country. Some of these scam^h^h^h^h telesales-marketing companies operate from oversees (ie. from Canada calling EU countries)..

Re:These lists are good, but..

[MollyB]

Another bummer: these registries only apply to marketers. Charities use the same tactics (Out of Area in CallerID, call more-or-less daily, and won't leave a message). I don't care who is bothering me for cash. All they get is a request to be removed from the call list.
(I have nothing against NGOs/charities. If I wish to donate, I can find my own suitable organization without prodding.)

Re:These lists are good, but..

[Silver Sloth]

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.

Re:These lists are good, but..

[irc.goatse.cx troll]

If I wish to donate, I can find my own suitable organization without prodding

I'd take that a step further. If I wish to donate, its to a charity that won't be spending my money paying someone to coldcall people to whore for donations.

Re:These lists are good, but..

[penix1]

I have nothing against NGOs/charities. If I wish to donate, I can find my own suitable organization without prodding.

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.

Re:These lists are good, but..

[cjb-nc]

The Do-Not-Call list is one of the biggest publicity stunt Congress has pulled in a decade.

The second being this event here. Look everyone, we caught *FIVE* big ticket offenders. See? It works! Really. We're doing our job. Never mind that each and every one of you has probably had to report five different companies for ignoring the list. They just weren't big enough to bother to go after.

Re:These lists are good, but..

[thejynxed]

And you know how they get you with that loophole? Every go into a Wallmart, Best Buy, or shop online at any number of random sites (Apple iTunes or Amazon for instance)? Now you have a good idea of why they ask you for your phone number when you pay by credit card or otherwise ask you for your phone number as part of account registry or the final sale information.

Convenient way to not only harvest your purchasing history, but it also gives them implicit permission to call your home and to allow their "partners" to do the same. Some of these companies may not have actually violated the list directly. Not their fault people don't pay attention to such details ya know.

Re:These lists are good, but..

[AuMatar]

Actually, no. In the years since the DNC list, I have had 1 and only 1 telemarketer call. It works.

Why not just ban all telemarketing

[Anonymous Coward]

Unless one specifically indicates to -one- firm at a time that they don't mind and might even like to be called about their latest news/offers (ala email/newsletters)?

NO ONE wants to be called by -random- telemarketers at home, selling what usually amounts to nothing but a flat out scam. It's preposterous we continue to accept it as a 'part of the market' or whatever it is that makes us keep allowing it to happen at all.

Almost there...

[pla]

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.

Now if only they'd remove the exemptions for charities and politicians, I'd call this a job well done.

Re:Almost there...

[JasonEngel]

While I would rather not get unsolicited calls, I do actually approve of the allowances for charities to call. I get about one charitable call per week, they've never happened after 5pm or on weekends, and they are almost always for material donations rather than money (ie clothes, food, etc). It's turned out on a few occasions that I've actually had a very good personal benefit from such calls, ending up with a good way to eliminate a lot of old clothes, especially the kids' old stuff.

However, with that said, my tolerance for charitable calls would evaporate quickly if they became more frequent, began to intrude on family time (please no calls evenings or weekends), or became pushy or demanding.

Re:Almost there...

[Overzeetop]

You clearly don't get the 4x year call from the Fraternal Order Troopers Society calling "on behalf" of the local police organization asking for cash for policemen retirement benefits, or some such. You know, I have established business relationships with all the charities I donate to. Being on the DNC list doesn't prevent them from calling me (that whole prior relationship thing). If necessary, get a 2 bit identifier attached to the DNC list; set bit zero as charities and bit one as political action. With 145M people on the DNC list, that ads up to a whopping 20MB of additional space. If it means getting it added, I'll send them a nickel to cover the cost of the extra storage.

US government served us well in this case.

[Morky]

The government saw telemarketing was a growing problem, and for all intents and purposes, fixed it. Taking a decision that results in lost jobs is usually antithetical to US politicians, but they did it anyway. Thanks for representing the people!

Re:US government served us well in this case.

[ucblockhead]

I don't know that I'd say "fixed it". I know I still get annoying calls, especially from "charities" or people "doing surveys". More like they took a stabbing pain and turned it into a dull ache. This is typical government: mediocre half-action which is, at least, better than nothing.

Charity exemption

[ortholattice]

For me, the do-not-call registry has worked pretty well in the sense that I'm getting many fewer calls from commercial companies.

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*.

First call in years...

[Aladrin]

Yesterday, I got my first call in years that wasn't from a wrong number or someone I knew.

They started off asking for me by name, and I asked why. They said they wanted to do a survey. I said, 'Do you not know I'm on the Do Not Call list?' 'We're not trying to sell anything.' After about 2 minutes of nastily telling him that he was profiting from me, and therefore WAS selling something, he said 'We'll call back tomorrow.' and hung up before I could reply. That was at 5pm... Yeah, dinner time. Another 'Unknown' number called at 8pm, but I hung up before they could talk.

I'm hoping they do call back again today so I can yell at another one of them and waste their time. I'm asking for a manager straight off this time.

It's kind of nice to have someone to yell at again... It's almost a shame the DNC list works so well.

A clasic response:

[ubrgeek]

TM: Hi, would you be interested in switching over to TMI long distance service.

Jerry Seinfeld: Gee, I can't talk right now. Why don't you give me your home number and I'll call you later.

TM: Uh, I'm sorry we're not allowed to do that.

Jerry Seinfeld: Oh, I guess you don't want people calling you at home.

TM: No.

Jerry Seinfeld: Well now you know how I feel.

Is there a National Do Call Registry?

[clickety6]

I'm sure lots of lonely people out there would like to sign up to such a registry!

Everyone is calling

[mhollis]

Yesterday, I got called by "Asia," saying she was from a local Chiropractor's office and wanted me to come in for a "Free" Spinal Analysis.

I reported the call to the State licensing board, saying that if he is hiring "fly-by-night" telemarketing companies, it was possible that he is doing questionable practice. I also reported the call to the FTC and called my Chiropractor (who went to the same, very respected, College) to complain.

Usually, whenever I inform the caller that my phone is on a "Do Not Call" registry, they hang up and try not to give me any information about their company or whereabouts.

I used to live in an illegal sublet in NYC and all calls were for a "Mr. or Mrs SomeotherLastname." I would very calmly inform the caller that I was "Mr. SomeotherLastname's" brother from the midwest and that they had just passed away. I would very politely enquire if they had an open account with them or some other business with them. This was before the Do Not Call Registry was set up and it was very amusing to hear the reactions.

Re:Or maybe go after the root of the problem.

[tompaulco]

Yes, but I am not willing to pay money for a service to stop people from calling me. This is like giving the bully your lunch money so he won't pester you on the schoolyard. Instead, I would want the telcos to let me quote a price for how many dollars per minute I will charge to talk to an incoming caller. The telco can keep a small percentage of this amount, and by pushing a button on the phone on incoming calls, I can waive the fee. If they falsify their incoming caller ID, I can push a button to bump the per minute fee up by a magnitude of three, and blocked caller ID automatically results in a multiple of three per minute fee.

Try answering in another language

[ehaggis]

Answering in another language or gibberish is fun. Speak Java or C++ to them. Klingon is good.

Missionary Work

[mulhollandj]

I try to engage in conversations with these people, when they are people, and try to convince them to let the missionaries from my church come and visit them. You would be surprised with how receptive these people are. I guess that is the risk for calling Utah.

Re:Recordings without contact numbers..

[bensode]

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! =)

A better solution (seriosuly)

[He Who Waits]

Over the past couple of years, the vast majority of telemarketing spam calls to my house have been through Predictive Dialing systems.

When answering a call from one of these systems, you typically hear a pause while the system alerts the telemarketers that it has found a live human for them to speak to.

Upon hearing that characteristic pause, I now simply dial 25 to instruct my Canon ImageClass multifunction laser printer to accept an incoming fax and hang up, leaving the caller to be bombarded with shrill fax tones.

In the two months I've been doing this, the number of spam calls I get has dropped by 2/3.