Stop Telemarketers from Calling Phone Number

[Luke_Wilbur]

Tired of getting calls from telemarketers. Call the following number from your phone: 888-382-1222.

It is the National DO NOT CALL list. It will only take a minute of your time. You must call from the number that you want to block. You can also go to their website :

 

http://www.donotcall.gov

 

This government service blocks your number for five (5) years.

 

To file a complaint now, your phone number must have been on the registry for 31 days.

 

To file a complaint, we need the date you got the call, and either the name or telephone number of the company that called you.

 

The National Do Not Call Registry applies to any plan, program, or campaign to sell goods or services through interstate phone calls. This includes telemarketers who solicit consumers, often on behalf of third party sellers. It also includes sellers who provide, offer to provide, or arrange to provide goods or services to consumers in exchange for payment.

 

The National Do Not Call Registry does not limit calls by political organizations, charities, or telephone surveyors.

 

A telemarketer or seller may call a consumer with whom it has an established business relationship for up to 18 months after the consumer's last purchase, delivery, or payment - even if the consumer's number is on the National Do Not Call Registry. In addition, a company may call a consumer for up to three months after the consumer makes an inquiry or submits an application to the company. And if a consumer has given a company written permission, the company may call even if the consumer's number is on the National Do Not Call Registry.

 

One caveat: if a consumer asks a company not to call, the company may not call, even if there is an established business relationship. Indeed, a company may not call a consumer - regardless of whether the consumer's number is on the registry - if the consumer has asked to be put on the company's own do not call list.

 

The area codes in the National Do Not Call Registry cover the 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands, Guam, North Mariana Islands, American Samoa, and toll-free numbers (500, 800, 866, 877, 880, 881, 882, and 888).

 

The service really works read this article from Business Week

 

Federal regulators have slapped a $1 million penalty on a telemarketer that automatically dialed and then illegally hung up on more than 64 million people.

 

A Florida-based company known as The Broadcast Team settled charges brought by the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice by agreeing to a court order that will bar them from making similar calls in the future and require them to pay a $1 million penalty.

 

The Broadcast Team also called more than a million numbers on the national Do Not Call Registry, the FTC said.

 

The company's principals, Robert J. Tuttle and Mark S. Edwards, were also named in the FTC's complaint. Edwards did not immediately return a call seeking comment.

 

The FTC said that the company was able to deliver over a million recorded messages per day to voice mailboxes and answering machines. But the company violated the commission's telemarketing sales rule by calling tens of millions of numbers and, when the calls were answered by people, hanging up or playing a recording.

 

The commission's rules require that calls answered by a person rather than an answering machine be connected to a live representative within two seconds, and not be "abandoned" by hanging up or playing a recording.

 

Telemarketers that make sales calls or for-profit telemarketers seeking charitable contributions are bound by the restrictions on abandoning calls, the commission said.

 

And the Broadcast Team received more than $2 million in revenue for telemarketing calls that violated the FTC's telemarketing sales rules, the commission said last year.

 

The Justice Department first filed a complaint in federal court at the FTC's request in December 2005. The complaint said the company abandoned 64 million calls on behalf of debt management companies and more than 450,000 calls made for charities and other purposes.

 

The complaint also said that the company violated the law by calling numbers on the national "Do Not Call" Registry and for making calls without paying the required annual fee for access to that Registry.

 

The company has agreed to a proposed court order that bars TBT from hanging up or playing a recording when a person answers its calls, and prohibits the company from calling numbers on the "Do Not Call" list.

 

The proposed order would also impose a civil penalty of $2.8 million, with $1.8 million suspended due to the company's inability to pay.

 

The company's agreement with the court order does not constitute an admission by the defendants that they violated the law, the commission said.

 

Michael Tankersley, a spokesman for the FTC, said the order would become final when signed by a federal court judge, which is expected to occur imminently.

 

http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D8N1S1I00.htm