41 Million Sign Up for National Do-Not-Call List

ejbst25 writes "The first wave of the do not call registry sign up ends 8/31. There is plenty of news coverage but they say there is already over 41 million numbers registered."

not gonna do it.

[514x0r]

it's just another way for them to track me.

has anyone seen a size 7 1/4 tin foil hat around here?

Summarized

[TopShelf]

The whole story boils down to:

FROM: The American People
TO: The Telemarketing Industry

Fuck you.

Sincerely,
The American People

Re:Do-Not-Spam

[rylin]

Hi!
I run just such a service.

Please provide your email address so I can add it to the list.

Would you also like a copy of our daily news letter with funny jokes, links to herbal stores and mortgage help?

Useless...

[Bull999999]

I signed up for it but I still get calls from my in-laws.

great

[Cyn]

Excellent reminder slashdot - thanks - I'd hate to miss out with the deadline only 2 days away... now I'll just hop on over to the site.... oh hmm well it's not responding. Oh well, I'm sure it'll be back before the deadline - I mean, it's not like it got slashdotted.

Oh.

Re:Cell Phone Number

[514x0r]

i gave up my landLine a couple of years ago--screw sbc, but that's another story--and recently have started getting telemarketers calling me on my cell. still not too many and they usually hang up when i tell them it's a cell.

it's more fun, though, to wait for them to inform you that the call may be recorded for qa and freak out about it ;)

Rights?

[Anonymous Coward]

I for one am tired of the "hate all corps / gov" mentality on slashdot.

In America, not only do business have the right to an opportunity to make money, they have the RIGHT to make money. By signing up on do-not-call lists, you are infringing on those rights. In addition, the millions of people signing up on the do-not-call list translates into millions in lost potential revenue due to lost potential customers.

Please, if you can suggest a better way to reach customers than telemarketing, I'd like to hear about it.

Re:Useless...

[i.r.id10t]

The difference between in-laws and outlaws is that outlaws are wanted....

Re:Do-Not-Spam

[Moth7]

I've got a nice little regex that could be used to generate a "do-not-spam" list:
/^[\w\.\-]+\@[\w\.\-]+\.[a-z][a-z]+$/i
Of course when the corporate nitwits tried to edit their list in Outlook Mr ^[\w\.\-]+\ @ [\w\.\-]+\.[a-z][a-z]+$ would be the only person who benefited

Re:Do not patronize

[aardvarkjoe]

I would like to see a "Do not patronize" list

It's called a "large, vicious dog."

Re:3 are mine

[freeze128]

When can you sign up again? I thought you could sign up anytime. If the next opening for sign-up is in 5 years, then I'm gonna just pull the ringer out of my phone.

Re:Cell Phone Number

[gsparrow]

I like your Idea about freaking out for training purposes. lol

Re:80 %?

[mz001b]

The FTC has estimated that the list will block about 80 percent of telemarketing calls. Charities, pollsters and political campaigns are exempt. In addition, a company may call a person if he or she has bought, leased or rented from the firm in the previous 18 months or has inquired about or applied for something during the past three months.

Political campaigns?... crap, I can see it now. Hi I'm calling from Ace Windshield Replacement. We're running for California governor, but enough about that, let me tell you about windows. With your appropriate donation to our busine...err, campaign, we can repair any windows in your vehicle...

Argues for a National-Please-call list

[goombah99]

Given this is close to half the housholds in america, and is only the people with the energy to actually make the effort to register, it seem pretty clear that the default assumption should be opt-out not opt-in. Indeed I cant think of a clearey more convincing way to demonstrate this than this very fact.

The needs to be a national please-phone-spam me list. you could even make it valuable to telemarketers and raise money too by

1) selling this list to them.
2) having sub categories on the list for various types of calls the recipiuent welcomes such as

i) get rich quick
ii) Roofing companies only in your area this week
iii) "free" vacations in a condo time share.
iiii) changing your phone company
iv) call me if I'm already an instant winner

Re:In other news

[aardvarkjoe]

You've got me. What could be done with a database of email + phone numbers?

Now, what's really frightening is that somebody has created a database linking phone numbers with names and home addresses. Imagine all the horrible things that could be done with this [whitepages.com].

Re:Cell Phone Number

[Anonymous Coward]

She must be pretty busy, between that and yelling down to the basement for you to clean it up.

Re:Rights?

[Anonymous Coward]

America, not only do business have the right to an opportunity to make money, they have the RIGHT to make money.

So nice if you to join us, Mr. Valenti.

Here is how one guy got 'em good...

[twoslice]

Tom Mabe [sternfannetwork.com]

He went to a telemarketing convention and got a hotel room under an assumed name, dialed up rooms at random trying to sell them shit in the wee hours of the morning. He has produced a CD on it and it is quite funny to see telemarketers really pissed at him...

Re:Rights?

[514x0r]

and anti-drug laws infringe on drug dealers rights to make money selling drugs.....

Got shell scripting?

[JiffyPop]

Am I the only person with a strong urge to write a program to put every number in the US on the list? :) A little wget in a loop, an email parser that waits for messages from [e-mail]... would hardly be impossible.

That would be an incredibly huge finger to give the telemarketers

Re:Do not patronize

[wowbagger]

I just answer the door with the lower receiver for my AR-15 in one hand, and a cleaning cloth in the other. Continue to polish the receiver as you talk to them.

The nice thing is there is no way they can claim you threatened them, as you only had a PART of the weapon at the door.

Re:Useless...

[Odin's Raven]

Bull999999 quoth: I signed up for it but I still get calls from my in-laws.

Didn't you read the exemption list?

Brother-in-law: Bull, we're a little short on cash this month, could you lend us a bit to tide us over until payday?
DNC Status: Exempt, charity call

Brother-in-law: Bull, would you rather keep working in that dead-end programming job, or get a great job selling Amway products like I do?
DNC Status: Exempt, poll

Sister-in-law: Bull-wife, I don't know why you stay with that good-for-nothing man of yours. You ought to kick him out and look for a better partner. There's a guy in my AA meeting who's an ideal candidate.
DNC Status: Exempt, political campaign

Mother-in-law: Bull, my daughter deserves someone better than you.
DNC Status: Exempt during first 18 months of marriage (purchased product from caller).

Re:Need help remembering

[mercuryresearch]

I remember it as well. I think this is the one:

http://www.xs4all.nl/~egbg/counterscript.html

Re:Hrmph. doesn't work for Canada it seems

[SandSpider]

I got an error on my area code when I tried to register.

I knew it! Even the Canadians don't know it's a different country!

=Brian

Re:I'm sorry...

[fucksl4shd0t]

I'm failing to see why eliminating the jobs of people whose job it is to annoy other people is a bad thing. I'm just not seeing the downside, here.

Yeah, I really don't wanna have to resort to a B ark, especially since I'm a marketing consultant.

Re:This is a horrible idea

[El]

At the end of the day, you've taken away jobs and hurt the economy. That's why this is a bad idea.

That's why it's a bad idea to pass laws against those people that stand on streets asking for money, then screaming obscenities at the people that don't give them any... you see, if you make this illegal, than you've taken away these people's jobs and hurt the economy. Liquor stores and drug dealers in your city will be forced out of business! Think of the children!

Your freedom to swing your fist ends where my nose begins. Unsolicited callers are clearly infringing on MY rights. If you've got a business model that requires you to make cold calls to attract suckers, I would suggest that you don't have a business model, you've got an extortion racket.

Re:Yeah.

[All Names Have Been]

I know you hate telemarketing calls, and I hate them too but I work there to pay my bills...

I know you hate having your kneecaps pulled off with rusty pliers - I hate it too! - But the local mob boss said I had to and it pays my bills.

I wonder how much time I'd waste per day fucking around with your little "get me off the list" script. I get 12 calls a day from your peers. Seriously. It's so bad I don't answer the phone anymore unless I recognize the caller ID or someone I know leaves a message. The DNC registry can't come quick enough for me and I'll be glad when most of this "industry" of selling vinyl siding and double glazing goes tits up. Screw you all.

Re:Do not patronize

[gid]

And put a big sign above it that says "do not push".

Which actually reminds me of a funny story....

I used to work for a dot com start up until recently. Anyway, at our old office there was a "big red button" on the wall ( a left over from the previous tenants of the building ), that we all always glared at, wondering what it did. I was always a big supporter of the "never push it" philosophy, whilst other people wanted to push it and find out what it did.

Well, one day, a client was in the office, and she jokingly asked what the "big red button" was for. One of the guys says, oh it does nothing because he's sure he remembers someone else pushing it before... He pushed it. Just then about 90% of the power in the building went out, only a few random lights remained on. Keep in mind the building we were in actually houses a few other companies, and their power went out as well.

One can only guess why that button was there. But to this day, I never miss a chance to say "I told you so". Curiosity, indeed, killed the cat.

Re:This is a horrible idea

[cpeterso]

but if you dismantle the do-not-call list, you are taking away the jobs of do-not-call list admins!

Re:Yeah.

[TheOldFart]

You are absolutely right. If it wasn't by telemarketers I would have lost my job a long time ago. See... after talking to my manager, all I can think of is dropping napalms on some children orphanage (is there another kind?). But then, at the end of the day, every single day, I receive my dose of unsolicited calls from you. That's when I exercise my anger management:

[telemarketer] Hi this is Jemima calling on behalf of SBC...
[me] I don't use SBC. How would you like my cock up your fucking ass right now?
[telemarketer] You don't need to be so rude
[me] You don't need to fucking call me every fucking minute of the day you fucking, cock sucking whore.
[click]

It works wonder and you feel much better...

Please keep calling me. My manager appreciates how calm I am under so much pressure.