FTC Limits Prerecorded Calls

The Wall Street Journal (excerpt) (subscription required) ^ | August 20, 2008 | Brent Kendall

[HAL9000]

Excerpt -

Responding to a wave of consumer complaints, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission said it will bar telemarketers from making prerecorded sales calls unless a consumer explicitly agrees to receive such calls.

The FTC also will require all recorded sales calls to provide an opt-out feature to allow consumers to place themselves on the caller's do-not-call list immediately.

~ snip ~

[LiberalsSpendYourMoney]

Wow your post was pathetically immature with that personal attack on his daughter. Seriously pathetic.

Pa-thetic!

[Chode]

i will NEVER push a button cause a message tells me it's ok... push the button and you might just be accepting their contract or whatever.

as for humans, i have an old State Police whistle next to the phone.

[steve86]

How ironic that I get an attack re: my statement that started out defending Christmas FROM A JEW!!!

And an amazing number of your recent comments have the word ‘pathetic’ in them.

[dan1123]

Those warranty fraud calls are already breaking many laws. This one isn't going to help. Someone is going to have to do a lot of sleuthing to figure out who they are, shut them down and put the ringleaders in jail.

[Clay Moore]

Last one that called me got a bit angry when I asked for her home phone number. She asked why I wanted it. “So I can call you and bother you after 9pm like you did to me.” CLICK!

[ChildOfThe60s]

Last one I got (a week ago) I pushed #1 for a live person. Then, as I was telling him politely that it was illegal to call me in this manner, he simply hung up.

I’m sure this will all stop with another law they will ignore, and no one can/will enforce.

[presently no screen name]

+

[Drango]

Then, as I was telling him politely that it was illegal to call...he simply hung up.

Dude... use the cat playing with a mouse method. After hitting 1, and getting a live person, I play with them....talk jibberish.
Would you like an extended warranty? Sure!
Car year? Yes I have one!
Would you like an extended warranty? How's the weather!
What year is the car? Hold on the washing machine needs me....(pause) I'm back. Where were we?
Would you like an extended warranty? Frankfurt
What??? Accordions play the best polka.

[Bikkuri]

I’ve been getting the auto warranty calls on my cell phone. I can’t imagine how they got that number and it’s annoying as he*#.

Have you been job searching on the internet (like at monster.com) or put any other personal info (email/phone#) on the net? I read withing this last week (the actual complaints from customers where from like 2006 until recently) something about their database being hacked and MANY peoples personal info was stolen... Most of the people filing complaints said the harassment (telemarketers, including the auto-call) started anywhere from 20 minutes after they signed up with monster.com (and also some other jobs search site) and 2 hours...

[shaft29]

Here is what I do.

I click #1 and get connected to a live person. I play along and act like I want to buy. When they ask me for my credit card information, I tell them my wallet is out in the car and ask them if I can put them on hold while I run out to the car to get it. They always say yes. I then put them on speaker phone and push the mute button so I can hear them but they cannot hear me.

Then I just sit and wait to see how long they will stay on hold. The longest has been 22 minutes.

[McLynnan]

No, I haven’t given out the number anywhere online. I’m pretty careful about giving it out and calls I place with it. Two women I work with are getting the same calls on their cell phones and we receive them on the same days — odd!