How to Stop Most All Telemarketing Calls.

By Mark Phillips

Unwelcome telemarketing calls can be annoying at the least – and the beginning of you being defrauded at their worst.

In the past few months this issue of my friends and clients getting calls from telemarketers, often 2-5 per day, has come up in conversation numerous times. This has been more noticeable for those whom are retired and thus at home in the day time to receive the calls (as rarely do telemarketers leave you a message). I will share with you both my thoughts and some elements of my discussion with my friends and clients on this issue.

Firstly telemarketer calls, as defined by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), include all calls to your home or cell phone where selling a product or service is the ultimate goal of the caller or their firm.

The Federal Trade Commission is empowered to enforce the Do-Not-Call Implementation Act of 2003 (Public Law No. 108-10, was H.R. 395 of the 108th Congress, and codified at 15 U.S.C. § 6101 et. seq.), and the Do-Not-Call Improvement Act of 2007. These laws allow for individuals such as you and I to list our home and cell phone numbers on the National Do Not Call Registry. The consequence of listing your phone numbers therein is that unauthorized telemarketers will be restricted from calling your listed numbers. The penalty they face for ignoring this is a fine of up to $11,000 per call.

How is the FTC doing with enforcement? On the FTC web site they share the following:

Enforcement of the Do Not Call Registry

The FTC takes aggressive legal action to make sure telemarketers abide by the Do Not Call Registry. To date, the Commission has brought 105 enforcement actions against companies and telemarketers for Do Not Call, abandoned call, rob call and Registry violations. The Mortgage Investors litigation produced the largest settlement for Do Not Call violations, resulting in civil penalty payments of $7.5 million. To date, 80 of these FTC enforcement actions have been resolved, and in those cases the agency has recovered over $41 million in civil penalties and $33 million in redress or disgorgement.

I have had numerous friends and clients complain to me about telemarketing calls, their frequency and the unhelpful entreaties of the callers. Yet when I share the option to list a phone number on the FTC’s Do Not Call Registry there seems to be some reluctance. I hear the following:

Q:        Well I don’t want to cut off important calls from people and companies I need to hear from.

A:         No individual (non-business) caller is restricted in any way by your number being listed on the DNC Registry.

the Do Not Call Registry prohibits sales calls. You still may receive political calls, charitable calls, debt collection calls, informational calls, and telephone survey calls. Sorry, but this service will not inhibit these calls.

In addition, companies may still call your listed number if you’ve recently done business with the company, or if you’ve given the company written permission to call you.

However, if you ask a company not to call you again, it must honor your request. I recommend that you record the date of your request.

As such the calls from firms you are doing business with will not be interrupted.

Additionally, legitimate companies you are not doing business with don't call if your number is on the Registry. If a company is ignoring the Registry, there’s a good chance that it’s a scam. If you get these calls, hang up and file a complaint with the FTC.

Q:        But won’t I miss out on opportunities for me?

A:         I propose that opportunities will not come to you by virtue of a telemarketing phone call. If there is something out there in the universe that you would benefit from you will not likely get a call from a telemarketer offering this to you. They are selling what they have not what you want or need. The better bet to get what you want or need is to be proactive and go get it yourself rather than hope and wait for someone to call you and offer it to you (at a good price no less).

Further consider, as more people list their numbers on the DNC Registry the fewer numbers not on the list will be subject to ever more calls from the telemarketers. Do you want to be subject to this?

I recommend that you list our home and cell phone numbers on the National Do Not Call Registry today so that the annoying (and worse) telemarketing calls you are receiving may soon be restricted.