Do Not Call Listings to Expire in 2008

Ant writes "Yahoo! News report that the cherished dinner hour void of telemarketers could vanish next year for millions of people when phone numbers begin dropping off the national/United States (U.S.)'s Do Not Call list. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC), which oversees the list, says there is a simple fix. But some lawmakers think it is a hassle to expect people to re-register their phone numbers every five years. Numbers placed on the registry, begun in June 2003, are valid for five years. For the millions of people who signed onto the list in its early days, their numbers will automatically drop off beginning next June if they do not enroll again."

people move, numbers change

[OrangeTide]

It's only fair that the enrollment is not permanent otherwise one day the list would include nearly every number. Even if some people who originally registered have switched numbers (moved to a different area code for example) or are deceased.

An everlasting list would be equivalent to a soft ban on telemarketing. If you really want to do that, just do that instead. For now 5 years seems perfectly reasonable for me to re-register.

How will I know when to enroll again? When I start getting annoying calls after 5pm.

Re:people move, numbers change

[belmolis]

No, there's another mechanism for dealing with this. Numbers are automatically removed from the do-not-call list when they are disconnected or reassigned.

Re:How many?

[RedSteve]

If the Do-Not-Call list were to never expire, eventually it will fill to all available U.S. phone numbers.

Um...so what would the problem be with that?

Re:people move, numbers change

[pete-classic]

Actually, opt-in makes the most sense.

-Peter

Do Call List

[Anonymous Coward]

This is bullshit. How about a Do Call list instead of a Do Not Call list. If you want telemarketers to call you go right ahead and put your number on that list, and make it illegal for them to call anyone who hasn't agreed to it. It's disgusting how ads are shoved down our throats all the time everywhere. Buy this, buy that, buy, buy, buy. Fuck off, If I want something I steal it thankyouverymuch!

Simple Fix

[Joebert]

Why not just leave the numbers on the list untill the number changes hands or is disconnected ?

This 5 year bit sounds like somthing to keep lobbyists from crying.

Re:Does the DNC list even mean anything?

[Stripe7]

Anyone telemarketer or charity who calls me loses any chance business with me. I hang up take note of who called and never do business with them again.

Re:Does the DNC list even mean anything?

[dwarfking]

This is supposed to be true, but I keep getting hit with a loophole that I can't get anyone to do anything about.

I moved 2 years ago and got a new number, which had previously been assigned to some woman who apparently bought all kinds of pharmaceuticals by phone. To this day we get calls 3 - 4 times a week from a call center manned by folks that speak accented English trying to sell us drugs. We tell them over and over to remove the number from their list.

Once I finally got the idiot to put a supervisor on. He claimed that they had prior business with the phone number, not the person, and could keep calling back. I said even if that were true, which it wasn't, they hadn't had a relationship in over a year so now they were required by law to take the number off their list.

His response: he asked if I wanted to buy any drugs.

I've filed numerous complaints with the FTC, once found out what state the company was registered in and filed complaints with the Secretary of the State where they were and in my own state. No one does any damn thing about it.

So as usual, all the DNC list is, is a worthless piece of guvment propaganda legislation to allow the elected officials to claim they did something about the problem. Best solution I have at the moment is to block any calls with "Unknown" in caller ID since they seem to hide their originating phone numbers now, probably to prevent using number block.

Typical garbage.

Re:Spam Assassin for PBX

[sricetx]

Why not a product that whitelists numbers that will ring through? Why should I answer calls from random numbers? Those can go straight to voicemail. You would think the telcos would sell a service like this, but I've never seen it. I suppose one could route all calls through an Asterisk box and have rules set up for this...