Hang up on telemarketers -- for good

MSN ^ | Liz Pulliam Weston

[Cultural Jihad]

Hang up on telemarketers -- for good

You really can fight back against those blasted calls. Here's how you can sign up for the new National 'Do Not Call' Registry, plus some ways to fight e-mail spam and junk mail.

By Liz Pulliam Weston

Your home is about to get a lot quieter -- especially around dinner time.

The Federal Trade Commission will put a leash on telemarketers July 1 by activating a national do-not-call list.

Once you sign up -- a free service, by the way, and don’t let scam artists tell you otherwise -- the government promises a substantial drop in telemarketing calls within three months.

“We think it’s the most significant improvement in consumer protection in a decade,” said Jason Catlett, president of Junkbusters Corp., which fights spam and marketing intrusions of all kinds. “It’s going to make an enormous difference in the lives of Americans.”

Sign up via phone or Web site
You know it’s a good law by the sheer volume of gnashing teeth emanating from the Direct Marketing Association and other groups representing telemarketers, who will be required to purge their databases of registry phone numbers at least quarterly.

You can sign up for the National "Do Not Call" Registry online starting July 1 (see the link to the registry Web site at left under Related Sites), or you can call a toll-free number (to be announced in late June) if you live west of the Mississippi. Folks east of the Mississippi can call in to register a week later.

Your peace isn’t entirely assured, since there are bound to be scofflaws willing to risk the $11,000-per-call fine. You will, however, have an easy online way to report the scoundrels, and you can still take them to small claims court if you want. The consumer’s right to sue under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act has been preserved.

Also, several types of businesses are exempted from having to use the registry, at least for now:

• long-distance telephone companies
  
• banks and credit unions
  
• airlines
  
• insurers
  
• political campaigns
  
• charities
  
• companies with which you already have a business relationship. (These can call you for up to 18 months after your last purchase, or three months after you make an inquiry or submit any type of application). But if you ask these callers to stop bothering you, they, too, are required to obey.

Even if you choose not to sign up for the registry -- it’s hard to imagine why you wouldn’t, but for the sake of argument let’s say you like constant interruptions -- you’ll have new ways to know who’s calling and why. The same rules that institute the do-not-call registry also require:

• A ban on blocked IDs. Telemarketers will be required to transmit their phone numbers and, usually, their names to your Caller ID service.
  
• No more hide-and-seek. Telemarketers are required to tell you upfront who they are and why they’re calling.
  
• Less dead air. There should be someone on the line when you pick up the phone -- or you should at least get a recorded message saying who’s calling.

Telemarketers have long violated federal law by using automatic dialing systems to ring more victims than they have operators to handle. Now the FTC finally seems determined to kill this practice with tougher enforcement so you won’t have to “wait to be annoyed,” as Catlett put it.

Many of the businesses currently exempted from using the registry, said FTC spokeswoman Cathy MacFarlane, may eventually be required to use it. The Federal Communications Commission is considering extending the do-not-call requirements to the businesses it regulates, which include long-distance phone carriers, airlines, banks and credit unions.

Spread the word
If you previously signed up for a state do-not-call list -- many states instituted them in the decade or so it took to get this national registry -- your number will eventually be added to the federal list, but it may take awhile. There’s nothing to stop you from speeding things along by signing up for the national list as soon as you’re able.

You might do what you can to spread the word to friends and family, as well -- particularly if you have an elderly relative who seems to be on every sucker list in the country. Some older folks are too polite to hang up on a telemarketer and thus get conned into every sweepstakes, scam and swindle going. You might offer to sit with them while they call the registry.

What you shouldn't do is sign up with any company that promises to “pre-register” you for a fee. The FTC says it won’t accept sign-ups from these companies -- you have to do it yourself when the registry opens.

The federal do-not-call registry is almost certain to be more effective than the methods we currently have for combating the two other major marketing intrusions: junk mail and spam.

Fight spam and credit-card offers
The Direct Marketing Association maintains do-not-mail lists that you can sign up for on its Web site (see link at left). But only the association’s members are required to scrub their mailing databases against the list, so you may not see a huge decrease in junk mail.

You also can reduce credit card solicitations by calling an opt-out service run by the three major credit bureaus: (888) 5-OPT OUT. You’ll need to provide your Social Security number as an identifier. You probably will notice a decline in the number of credit card offers you receive but, again, the list is voluntary and many marketers don’t honor these requests.

Fighting e-mail spam is even more of an uphill battle. Sites like Junkbusters and Fight Spam on the Internet (see links at left under Related Sites) offer suggestions and links to filtering software. The best way to reduce spam, though, is still the same: trying to keep your e-mail address off the spammers’ lists in the first place. That means not posting it on public Web sites if possible and choosing an unusual handle that won’t be guessed by “dictionary spamming” software that simply creates endless lists of names, hoping to find ones that work.

And one more thing . . .
Finally, a word to you telemarketers who are about to e-mail me with angry denouncements of the federal do-not-call list and to complain about losing your jobs:

I once cleaned houses to make ends meet, which means I quite literally scrubbed toilets to make a living. That, my dears, is honest work. You might give it a shot.

[GrandMoM]

BUMP

[IYAS9YAS]

Beat them all to the punch...got rid of the home phone and well "like, totally cellular". Don't miss the annoyances a bit.

[bmwcyle]

bttt

[Provost-Marshal]

This article is very disturbing. What right does the federal government have to harass business enterprise in this way, just because it is "annoying". If you ask me, it's the government, and its totalitarian ideas, that is annoying. What next, ban television commercials? I'm sick of soccer moms lobbying to reduce the rights of business in this country. I'd much prefer that we ban soccer.

[Egg]

Don't miss the annoyances a bit.

Do you mean the annoyance of constantly asking "Are you still there?", or, "Can you hear me now?" ;)

I still have a telephone at home, but I won't be joining any federal nanny do-not-call list.

[budwiesest]

Anyone know if it's true that by replying to the 'unsuscribe' feature on spam you'll actually move up on a list as your address will now be considered a 'live' hit?

[Tamzee]

I support this... I joined PA's list and immediately about 90% of the obnoxious phone calls ceased :-)

[Egg]

There are technological solutions that don't require government intervention. Don't people get tired of asking government to solve their every problem?

[P-Marlowe]

What is your phone number? I'll give it to the telemarketers when they call me at dinner time.

[eBelasco]

Why does it take the federal government to do this? Don't the telephone companies realize there is money to be made by providing this service to their customers? Why not include a "telemarketer blocking" feature, just like call-return etc as an option for $5 a month or whatever?

[joesbucks]

Beat them all to the punch...got rid of the home phone and well "like, totally cellular". Don't miss the annoyances a bit.

Except when you sign up for a service and put the cellular number on your application. Loans and other necesary items that are purchased that require some sort of application such as loans require phone number. Put the cullular number down and suddenly your paying for minutes to be bugged.

[Fiddlstix]

Bump

[BJungNan]

This article is very disturbing. What right does the federal government have to harass business enterprise in this way, just because it is "annoying".

Give me your phone number and I will be sure and give you are ring just as you have locked the door to go out, just as you are sitting down to dinner, just as you have sprayed down the car to give it a wash...

Actually, I would agree with you if the same government that is trying to help out in this instance would allow me to see the telephone number of everyone that called. That way I could ring them back just as they have locked the door to go out, just as they are sitting down to dinner, just as they have sprayed down the car to give it a wash...

In other words, the government won't let me see who is calling me so the government better do something to stop these calls. God help anyone that lets me know there number once they have called me.

[budwiesest]

Oh, great. This will not be well accepted by my wife who prides herself in the task of 'unsubscribing'. Won't help much with her already computer illiterate self image. :^)

[Hodar]

I have to disagree. When a company uses my property (the phone lines in the house are mine, the phone is mine) and uses property I have leased (phone service, phone lines to my house and my phone number) without my conscent, I object. When they then use my property for their commercial gain, without my approval, I object. When they refuse to identify themselves while using my property, I object. When the phone rings, I do not know if it is a medical emergency, friends and/or family calling to say hello, work calling to inform me of an important update; or some person trying to sell me something. I should not have to pay to use a phone line, then be solicited at home against my will. Now, as you so strenuously object to this idea; I'm certain you won't be hypocritical and suscribe to the "Do Not Call List". However, I will.

[crazykatz]

I wonder if it covers survey calls. I made $100 doing surveys last month. Another $100 this month attending a "focus group" meeting about diabetes at a very nice office. They even gave us a lovely catered dinner. I was recruited by a telephone call.

Nice money for a retiree, if you asked me.

I am never rude to anybody who calls my home. One simply says, "I am not interested .... but thanks for calling."

Why be mean to anybody who is NOT really being mean to you. Answering the phone can be great EXERCISE!! hahaha.

I am with you about the national "nanny list". This list is just so UNIMPORTANT in the scheme of things, you know.

[HairOfTheDog]

Side topic of SPAM:

Anyone know if it's true that by replying to the 'unsuscribe' feature on spam you'll actually move up on a list as your address will now be considered a 'live' hit?

What I have heard is, that the company you unsubscribe from will remove you from the list, but that they can now sell your address as a verified live address.

I haven't seen it come true though. The few SPAM emails I ever get are things I actually asked for at some time, and when I tired of them, I unsubscribed without consequence.

I am not careless about where I give my address, but I am not overly paranoid about it either. I have had ONE email address for the past couple of YEARS and never recieved more than 5-6 pieces of SPAM that I didn't sign up for.

I truly don't know why others have this trouble!