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FTC Announces Crackdown on Do Not Call Violators

Posted by samzenpus on from the no-means-no dept.

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."

17 of 162 comments (clear)

  1. Yeah!!! by Jaster82 · · Score: 5, Interesting

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

  2. 5 Year Limit by Misanthrope · · Score: 5, Informative

    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.

    1. Re:5 Year Limit by Jaster82 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      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.

    2. Re:5 Year Limit by Toutatis · · Score: 5, Funny

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

    3. Re:5 Year Limit by goddidit · · Score: 5, Funny

      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.
      --
      This .sig is exactly 120 characters long.
  3. To File a Complaint by wildsurf · · Score: 4, Informative

    Go here.

    --
    Weeks of coding saves hours of planning.
  4. These lists are good, but.. by eniac42 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    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)..

    --
    "A nation that forgets its past is doomed to repeat it." - Churchill
    1. Re:These lists are good, but.. by MollyB · · Score: 3, Insightful

      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.)

    2. Re:These lists are good, but.. by Silver+Sloth · · Score: 3, Informative

      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.
    3. Re:These lists are good, but.. by irc.goatse.cx+troll · · Score: 5, Insightful

      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.
      --
      Pain lasts, kid. Its how you know you're alive. Sometimes I think this growing up thing is just pain management-TheMaxx
  5. Why not just ban all telemarketing by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    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.

  6. Almost there... by pla · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.

  7. US government served us well in this case. by Morky · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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!

  8. First call in years... by Aladrin · · Score: 3, Interesting

    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.

    --
    "If you make people think they're thinking, they'll love you; But if you really make them think, they'll hate you." - DM
  9. A clasic response: by ubrgeek · · Score: 4, Insightful

    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.

    --
    Bark less. Wag more.
  10. Re:Or maybe go after the root of the problem. by tompaulco · · Score: 4, Interesting

    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.

    --
    If you are not allowed to question your government then the government has answered your question.
  11. A better solution (seriosuly) by He+Who+Waits · · Score: 4, Interesting
    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.