Maybe you’re not ready to celebrate, but telemarketers all over the country are excited about the big day. Why, you may ask? Because your telephone number will automatically come off the Do Not Call list and back onto the desks of telemarketers. How can that be? Well, here’s a refresher course on how the Do Not Call Registry works:
After years of research, workshops, and meetings, as well as much consideration and input from over 64,000 people like you and me, the FTC and FCC came up the Do Not Call Registry. The registry was created to give you the right to opt out of annoying telemarketing calls. To sign up, you only have to call or fill out a form on to a website and submit your phone number. Telemarketers then have 31 days to remove your name from their call lists. Beautiful!
Not so fast…
Apparently the telemarketers didn’t like the idea that once someone signed up they might never hear from a telemarketer again. Out of their concern for you (right!), the telemarketers pushed the FTC to create a rule that after five years of being on the registry a phone number would automatically be removed and put back on call lists. The FTC agreed and this is why the DNC Registry’s fifth anniversary has telemarketers salivating. Your telephone is ready to start ringing again. Are you ready?
So what can you do?
Just re-register your number for the Do Not Call list. It takes less than 2 minutes and you can do it by phone or web site.
Get all the details on how to re-register your name…
UPDATE: It appears that the “FTC Pledges Not to Drop Any Numbers From Do Not Call Registry, Pending Final Congressional or Agency Action on Whether to Make Registration Permanent the registry pending”
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Stumble it!
Shaun Dakin
October 18, 2007 @ 7:32 pm
Did you also know that Political calls, particularly automated or robo calls, are EXEMPT from the federal DNC List?
The National Political Do Not Contact Registry, a non-partisan non-profit citizen led group is fighting for all voters and has launched the registry this week.
Learn more at http://www.stoppoliticalcalls.org
Regards,
Shaun Dakin
CEO and Founder
Dave
October 26, 2007 @ 1:24 pm
Thanks for posting a link Shaun. I’m guessing at this point compliance is completely voluntary for the politicians. Have you had much luck in getting politicians on board?
Shaun Dakin
October 26, 2007 @ 1:52 pm
Dave,
Yes, we are not looking for a new or amended law or regulation. Political speech is protected by the First Amendment and we don’t want to restrict it. What we want, however, is for politicians to listen to their constituents and, if they say they don’t want to be called, not to call them.
As a citizen-led movement, the more voters that join up, the more politicians will need to pay attention.
I’ve had a lot of “off the record” conversations will pols who have essentially said that once we hit a threshold that is meaningful to them (i.e. their race, local, national, state, regional, etc…) they would be stupid NOT to join.
Hope this helps.
Shaun
Brent W
March 17, 2008 @ 1:31 am
Good news. Congress passed a bill making the federal do not call list permanent. You’ll never have to re-register again. Here is a blog post regarding this news.
http://www.americaninbound.com/blog/2008/02/19/the-national-do-not-call-list-is-now-permanent/
Also, several states still maintain a separate do not call list of their own.
I made a post in my blog detailing the status of each state’s list and links to pages where you can register for them. Enjoy!
http://www.americaninbound.com/blog/2008/02/14/get-rid-of-your-telemarketing-problem-once-and-for-all/