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Annoying telemarketing calls may resume |
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Tuesday, 25 September 2007 |
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By Jeannetta Edwards
Daily Times Leader Just sitting down to dinner or in the middle of your favorite television program and the telephone rings.
When you interrupt what you were enjoying to answer it, you find it’s a telemarketer, calling to sell you something, sign you up for something or enter you in a drawing for something.
So many consumers complained about unwanted telephone solicitors until
Congress first passed the Telephone Consumer Protection Act in 1991.
The act was in response to consumer concerns about the growing number of unsolicited telephone marketing calls to homes and the increasing use of automated and prerecorded messages.
Additionally, the Federal Communications Commission adopted rules that require anyone making a telephone solicitation call to your home to provide his or her name, the name of the person or entity on whose behalf the call is being made, and a telephone number or address at which that person or entity can be contacted.
The original rules also prohibit telephone solicitation calls to your home before 8 am or after 9 pm, and require telemarketers to comply with any do-not-call request you make directly to the caller during a solicitation call. In June 2003, the FCC supplemented its original rules implementing the TCPA and established, together with the Federal Trade Commission, the national Do-Not-Call list.
Once you have placed your home phone number or numbers, including any personal wireless phone numbers, on the national Do-Not-Call list, callers are prohibited from making telephone solicitations to those number(s).
The national Do-Not-Call list protects home voice or personal wireless phone numbers only. The listing must be renewed every five years, but Congressman Michael Doyle (D-Pennsylvania) and Congressman Chip Pickering (R-Mississippi) have introduced the Do-Not-Call Improvement Act of 2007 (HR 3541), seeking to remove five year expiration
“This legislation is a common sense approach to improving one of the most popular programs enacted by Congress,” Pickering said. “Not only will this bill result in a simplified process by making the ‘Do Not Call’ List permanent, it will ensure the continued satisfaction in this program in the future.”
Currently more than 132 million home and mobile telephone numbers have been submitted to the National Do Not Call Registry since its inception on June 27, 2003.
However, the regulations written by the Federal Communications Commission and the Federal Trade Commission require that the registry delete individuals’ numbers after five years, forcing the people who own those numbers to resubmit their information.
As of June 2008, millions of people will begin to receive telemarketing calls again and many may not realize that their listing has expired.
“It makes no sense to force people to sign up again every couple of years,” observed Congressman Doyle, who is vice chairman of the House and Energy and Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet, which has jurisdiction over this program.
The Do-Not-Call Improvement Act of 2007, would eliminate the existing expiration of listings on the federal Do Not Call Registry. If this bill is enacted, individuals would not have to sign up for the Do Not Call list every five years and still have the ability to remove their number from the list if they wish to do so.
You can register your home phone number(s) on the national Do-Not-Call list by phone or by Internet at no cost. To add your home phone number to the national Do-Not-Call list via the Internet, go to www.donotcall.gov. To register by phone, call 1-888-382-1222 (voice) or 1-866-290-4236 (TTY). You must call from the phone number you wish to register. For more information on the national Do-Not-Call list, visit our Web site at http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/donotcall/.
Consumers who do nor register on the Do-Not-Call list may inform the callers individually that they do not wish to be called. When telephone solicitation calls are received, clearly state that you want to be added to the caller’s do-not-call list. Consumers may want to keep a list of those persons or businesses that you have asked not to call you. Tax-exempt non-profit organizations are not required to keep do-not-call lists.
The FCC has specific rules for automatic telephone dialing systems, also known as “autodialers.” These devices can be particularly annoying and generate many consumer complaints. The rules regarding automatically dialed and prerecorded calls apply whether or not you have registered your home phone number(s) on the national Do-Not-Call list. |
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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 26 September 2007 )
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