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October 17, 2002
"Do Not Call Lists"
Many consumers are feeling besieged these days by telemarketers calling them at all hours to pitch goods and services they often do not want to hear about, from cellular phone service to discount travel clubs to political fundraisers. Under federal law, you can ask specific telemarketers not to call you only after you’ve been disturbed.
That’s why 30 states have created "Do-Not-Call lists," and millions of consumers have signed up for them. Before soliciting in those states, telemarketers have to remove these people's names and phone numbers from call lists. The Federal Trade Commission is now considering creating a national Do-Not-Call list so that people could just get on the list once and not have to remember to get on the list in each state. Even if it were to happen, certain groups would be exempt, including nonprofit charities, political parties, and businesses with which you already have a customer relationship, like your bank. The FTC would also have a "zero-tolerance" policy when it comes to hang-up calls made by predictive dialers that call more numbers than operators could possibly handle and hang up if there is no answer. If you pick up the phone from one of these calls and the telemarketer doesn’t answer right away, some people think they are being stalked or harassed.- If you want to get off telemarketing lists, there are several ways to do
it:
- Don't put your phone number on contest and sweepstakes forms, warranty applications and store discount cards that are used to compile lists.
- Go to http://www.guardmycredit.com and click on the "Opt Out Manager" on the Privista service that allows you to get off of telemarketing and junk mail lists from all the major callers and mailers for free.
- Go to http://www.the-dma.org and get off telemarketing lists through the Direct Marketing Association’s Telephone Preference Service (TPS). All DMA members run their calling lists against the TPS lists to eliminate people who don’t want to get called. Their list is updated four times a year, and your file remains on their list for 5 years. If you want to register online, it costs $5 and will get you off of calling lists quicker.
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