U.S. National Do-Not-Call Registry On the Way? 563
WinkyN writes "Yay! The U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed a measure that creates a national "do not call" list for telemarketers. Telemarketers are required to check the list every three months and can be fined up to $11,000 each time they violate the law. Now I won't have to ignore my telephone when it rings since more than 50 percent of my calls are from telemarketers." Congress is just getting around to passing a budget bill to run the government for fiscal year 2003 (started last October), and we're now in the time period when everything and the kitchen sink gets thrown into it just before it passes. Good to know that there's at least one useful piece of legislation.
SPAM (Score:1, Interesting)
We can only hope... (Score:5, Interesting)
a small change (Score:5, Interesting)
now, this law would be really impressive if we, the 'victims', get a cut of that 11 grand...
xao
Finally (Score:2, Interesting)
Only a couple problems with it... (Score:2, Interesting)
The FTC has limited authority to police telemarketing calls from certain industries, including airlines, banks and telephone companies.
I wonder if "limited authority" means this bill won't apply to calls from those industries.
How about a mail-out opt-out (Score:1, Interesting)
What's the point (Score:4, Interesting)
A federal level law has not even been passed yet and already the tele-crapers have a way around it. This method was started, I believe, by collection agencies but has been picked up by the marketeers. (I am yelling at one of them as I type this!)
Re:"Take me off your list" (Score:4, Interesting)
Funds are on the way (Score:2, Interesting)
"If anyone holds this legislation up, we're prepared to give out their home phone number," the Louisiana Republican said.
Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist supports the bill and is confident it will pass.
Wisconsin's List (Score:2, Interesting)
No it wouldn't... (Score:3, Interesting)
Just think of how much effort the government goes to get a few extra hundered dollars off your tax form, so what do you think they will do to get an extra 11,000$ for a bad phonecall?
Jobs program for China. (Score:5, Interesting)
You know, like all the spam.
Re:We can only hope... (Score:3, Interesting)
The federal law has the same exceptions.
Re:What's the point (Score:3, Interesting)
Have you actually called it back to see if its a sales pitch?
Re:Opting out of credit card solicitations (Score:3, Interesting)
It's a little scary entering your SSN into a computerized database, but I figured these guys already have a lot more on me, so I went ahead and did it. Hope it works.
Not the end of the problem (Score:2, Interesting)
Don't start picking up your phone quite yet. The article says "Charities, surveys and calls on behalf of politicians would be exempt".
Think about it... If they outlawed all radio advertising except your business wouldn't you do more radio advertising? I mean, all of the "clutter" would be gone, and your message would be more effective. In this case, people will be generally less ticked off about unsolicited calls so they will be more likely to talk to a caller.
And the word "surveys" is a loophole so big you could drive a truck through it.
"Hello sir, we are doing a survey to find out how many people would shop at K-Mart if CDs were on sale for $12.99."
Re:50 percent, huh? (Score:3, Interesting)
Senator Hollings eh? (Score:2, Interesting)
-- Cameron
Finally getting it right... (Score:3, Interesting)
It's so good to see this coming through. But it's also about technology and where we draw the line on privacy. The Euros, for all their failings, got this right, they're system is starts with the customer in opt-out mode, whereas we are all opt-in, thus the thousand letters from Visa.
The marketers, from the article, and other things I've read, talk about cost. This is, well bullshit. Yes, it will cost them more, on a relative basis, because their samples are based on a two-percent acceptance rate BY SENDING EVERY US CITIZEN A FLYER! But what if you could identify those people who really did want information, then there is no wasted paper, or time, or energy. That's less money! I'm sure someone, somewhere needs a free carpet-cleaning estimate and ten dollars off their next pizza, but it ain't me.
Will it cost jobs? Yes, telemarketer jobs. But the reason those jobs are so prevalent is because you have to call EVERY CITIZEN IN THE UNITED STATES. Yes, those jobs will right-size, but you are assured that those person are talking to people who are interested. Does it all make sense now? I hate when people make stupid arguments that defy common sense and macroeconomics.
Re:50 percent, huh? (Score:5, Interesting)
100% of my 3-5 phone calls a day are telemarketers.
regional or not, that is unreasonable.
Re:"one good law"? (Score:3, Interesting)
The ninth basically states, if memory serves, that the Constitution's enumeration of certain specific rights does not mean that that's ALL the rights under it.
The tenth is perhaps the strongest (in a legal sense) way for opponents of the list to fight it -- powers not granted elsewhere in the Constitution, either explicitly or implicitly, are reserved to the states.
Re:"one good law"? (Score:2, Interesting)
So long as the telemarketing company itself, or the company it's marketing for, is engaged in interstate commerce, the feds have a legitimate Constitutional power to pretty well smack 'em around.
If it's "Bob's Handyman Service" that only does local business, than the interstate commerce clause doesn't apply; unfortunately the courts seem to have problems with literacy, and like to pretend that all commerce counts as interstate.
What I did (Score:3, Interesting)
Another thing I want to know, say you sign up, and some mom-and-pop shop that bought a telemartketing recording software calls you. What do you do? cWhat will happen? I would like to know what an individual has to do. Do you hire a layer? or does the agency do the paperwork?
Re:Too bad (Score:5, Interesting)
Sounds familiar. I'm a Pac Bell customer in Southern CA. Two years ago a similar plague of automated calls started filling my answering machine memory with messages that were nothing but sequences of beeps, each lasting more than 3 minutes. Every day, a dozen or more times a day, these calls arrived exactly every seven minutes apart, with caller ID giving an "UNAVAILABLE" origin. It rendered my answering machine useless, and I was in the middle of an employment search!
I finally got fed up and called my local PD, who set up a trap and trace with Pac Bell. Although it successfully identified the caller, the PD wouldn't identify them for me - something about potential for retaliation. The detective promised me that he sent the caller a warning, but since they were out of state there was little I could do. The calls continued. Month after month.
Every month I set up another trap and trace, and eventually told the PD that I wanted recourse to civil court, and that I required the ID of the offensive caller in order to file suit. At this point the PD got the FBI involved, and finally, after more than a year, I got a call from a detective and found out the story:
The calls were originating from Dallas. The caller was a SBC Long Distance telemarketer using an autodialer. That's right, SBC.
My own phone company was jamming my answering machine with dozens of nuisance calls a day!
Why it just beeped, no one could explain. My theory is that it was my 1970's era Radio Shack answering machine with a continuous loop outgoing message cassette. The beep is a metal splice strip. The beep tone must have triggered something in the autodialer. Anyway, the FBI got results. The calls stopped. They briefly resumed again, but this time there was an 800 number on my caller ID. I called it and it was SBC LD customer service. They denied calling me at all, but I spoke to a supervisor and made it clear that I did not want them calling me at all and if they did, they would be subject to fine and criminal prosecution for harassment, due to the frequency and duration of their PITA calls.
I finally got peace.
To this day I am still confounded by the irony - it was SBC, my own phone company. And I can't sit thru a SBC long distance ad on television without shuddering in revulsion.
I'll tell you what works (Score:3, Interesting)
A little more than 6 months ago I started the following: when I get a telemarketer on the phone, I execute the following script:
1. I ask for their name. I find that getting their name makes the connection more personal and they are less likely to hang up on me. Before, when I just started with step #2, I got a fair number of hang ups.
2. Say these words: "Joe, I would like you to put me on your do not call list. Thank you."
Sometimes, you have to answer some questions, and one company (MCI, maybe) put me through 60 seconds of questions.
I currently receive anywhere from 1-2 calls a week. Before, I was getting 2-3 calls an evening.
Btw, I used to mess with the telemarketers. Say "hold on, I'll get him" and leave the phone off the hook. While this made me feel good, it didn't decrease the number of calls I got.
Fun and Spooky (Score:5, Interesting)
One credit card company kept calling and calling even though I repeatedly said it was a wrong number. They insisted, so one day, I just never said I wasn't the guy they were looking for.. It got scary: I never realized how easy it is to get information from people like this.. These repo/credit companies call and give you soo much information without verifying who they are talking to. I knew all about this guy that had a white ford ranger pickup about to be repo'd, he only had a PO box (haha they sold a pickup to a guy with no address), he made cabinets, lived in New Mexico, had my phone number, hadn't paid his $239/mo payment for 4 months, AND I verified his social security number. I got all this information through passively sitting through their "can you confirm your address is..." type questions. When I got bored I told them they had the wrong number and they weren't talking to the right guy. Its amazing how easy it can be to get someone else's information.. Its spooky how careless people can be with your personal information. Its easy for me to believe there is so much fraud out there through the telephone.. I didn't even break a sweat - imagine someone who puts his hip into it.
not a good thing for everybody (Score:4, Interesting)
I've heard for some time while they've been drumming up support for this bill that there's one big downside to it. As the article says, the bill permits non-profit calls, but what it doesn't say is that this bill will preempt any state laws that are more restrictive. So, for example, people in Indiana (which already has a very good do-not-call-list law) will get MORE calls under this bill since there is a wader range of calls permitted even when you are on the list.
Re:As much as I like the idea ... (Score:2, Interesting)
What if my time is worth money? Shouldn't I at least have control over that. If I have control over neither than what do I get control over? Attaching a link to a libertarian site to your comments is an abomination.
As for your so called "100 examples of time-wasting more significant than spam [and telemarketing]." I call bullshit. I dare you to name 10 time wasters that affect you as you sit in your house minding your own business.
You sir are a Troll.
Another festive trend in telemarketing.... (Score:2, Interesting)
The first time I got one of these I admit I was a bit confused trying to figure out which of our friends was leaving this message - until they got to the timeshare part of course. Damn vermin telemarketers....
On another point, I don't understand how there are escape clauses for politicos and charities. Perhaps this should be up to the consumer as to whether or not they want to receive these calls? Maybe there can be an option when you sign up for the DNC list to block these calls too? I would certainly at least want to block the politicians.
Oh well, maybe that'll be in V2.0
Do as I say, not as I do... (Score:2, Interesting)
Everyone is quick to jump on the bandwagon that yay, a national DNC list is great, great the politicians are doing something good, blah blah blah.
If you pay attention to this type of legislation, you'll notice that there is one major hole...political calls are almost always exempt from telemarketing laws. For example, in commercial work, we can call between 8am-9pm, and generally make only 2 requests (unless it is a no 2nd request state), and observer DNC lists / requests.
However, our political division can legally call any time of day, and they can pitch you continuously, and in most cases, call you even if you are on your states DNC list. Granted, our company has higher standards than that, but the lack of regulation is there.
This past election, our company raised millions of dollars to help get republicans re-elected. In fact, i remember being told we were the second largest source of donations for the particular division (senate, house, or president, our division will remain nameless) we were calling for. They realize what a vital avenue telemarketing is, and always make sure they are exempt from the laws they pass.
It just goes to show that the politicians are looking out for themselves first before they are looking out for you.