Do Not Call Registry Gets Glowing Reviews 276
coondoggie writes to tell us that in a recent report to Congress by the FTC, the National Do Not Call Registry got glowing reviews. They seem to be well established now with $21 million in fees in the bank, 22 successful court cases, and an almost 70% approval rating. "In 2007, a total of 6,242 entities paid fees totaling $21,602,003 for access to the National Registry. According to the FTC, telemarketers and sellers can access registered telephone numbers and pay the appropriate fee for that access, if any, through an Internet website dedicated to that purpose. The only information about consumers that companies receive from the National Registry is the registered telephone number. Since the Registry's inception, a total of 18,197 unique entities have paid fees for access to the National Registry. The total amount of fees paid by all entities since the inception of the National Registry through the end of 2007 is $80,629,778, the report stated."
Re:Pay for access to the list? (Score:5, Informative)
Nope, that's exactly how it works. The trick is that if they call people on the list, they get fined, so it's cheaper to buy access to the list.
Direct Link to report (Score:2, Informative)
Check up on your state laws (Score:4, Informative)
For fellow New Yorkers, here [state.ny.us] is the official NYS law regarding "Do Not Call".
Re:Not the end state (Score:5, Informative)
No, they don't bother people on cellphones because it is illegal. It has nothing to do with pricing.
Re:Don't get me wrong... (Score:5, Informative)
You have the right to say what you want. You don't have the guarantee of an audience.
Re:Pay for access to the list? (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Not the end state (Score:5, Informative)
My understanding of WHY it was illegal to bother people on cell phones though was that it costs money to the person you're calling. Unlike landlines which only charge for outgoing calls.
Like a collection agency cannot cost you money in an attempt to collect what you owe them and likewise can't call cell lines.
At least that's the way of it in my home state.
Re:Two problems still (Score:5, Informative)
Tell them to cease and desist or you will file harassment charges.
Re:Two problems still (Score:3, Informative)
It would be a bad law that says that a company with which you are involved in business dealings couldn't call you because you are on the DNC list. A collection agency inherits your "business dealings" with the people you didn't pay. Or the people who had the number before you who didn't pay.
Come to think of it, does anyone know if I have any recourse (other than to just use my cell phone, which I do)?
The law says they must stop calling you if you tell them to stop calling you, even IF you are the deadbeat they are trying to find.
If you aren't, that ends the problem. They are usually trying to harass someone, anyone, into paying something, and if you don't harass well, they lose money by calling you. They probably don't have enough evidence to prove you owe the money, so they won't waste court time.
If you ARE the deadbeat, and they can prove it, you've just escalated the problem to the next level, which might mean legal proceedings and lawsuits, so you might want to think twice about telling them to stop.
Re:Two problems still (Score:5, Informative)
Please use "example.com" when you need an example domain name. That's what it's there for. It's simple politeness.
Re:Not the end state (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Not the end state (Score:2, Informative)
This is something you can fix.
Ask the collector for their contact number, company name, the caller's name, and what they are calling regarding. Write this down along with the time they call. If they are a collections agency, they will be fairly short with you because (1) they're dicks -- hey that's what a collection agency is for -- and (2) by law they're not allowed to disclose anything related to the person's debt. Tell them that you don't know who this person is and to never call you at this number again. By law, even if you were Shaniqua, they have to stop calling you if you tell them to do so, cell phone or not. It becomes harassment beyond that point, and an interstate crime at that.
If they call you again, do the same process, insure you have the same place, and then go to the FTC's website and file a complaint. Repeat offenders get fined out of existence. Complaining to the BBB can also be of value, but hardly any collections or repossession companies are "better" businesses in any fashion.
Re:Two problems still (Score:3, Informative)
Get a decent VoIP phone service, and a new number (Score:4, Informative)
I recently switched to VoIP here, and deliberately did /not/ transfer my old phone number. The VoIP provider has an (optional) service that sends anon CID calls to an answerer that asks them to dial a random set of numbers to prove they are human. If they don't, they don't get thru.
Of course, as about all VoIP providers, they bundle CID (along with all sorts of other fancy stuff the former monopolists charge extra for) at no additional charge. When I upgraded to VoIP I took the opportunity to upgrade my home system as well, and got a "Speaking CallerID" setup. It's GREAT!! Where previously I had found CID almost useless and had therefore canceled it as it cost more, choosing instead to let everything go to answerer and I'd only answer it if I recognized the caller, now I get the announcement of who it is. Some still come up "Cell Phone ", but once I put them in the phone book it announces that name instead. After a few weeks, I was able to ignore anything generic as everyone I wanted to take calls from was already in its phone book and thus no longer generic.
I've had the system for about a year now, and in that time, have only gotten three apparent phone-spammer calls. Those three were using automated dialers and faked CIDs, aaaa, bbbb and jjjj or some such (BTW, it can be rather "interesting" to hear the phone's interpretation of say, initials), to bypass the random number dial intelligence test. As I also have a phone-zapper (what was originally advertised for $50 I picked up at the dollar store), set to play the "disconnected tri-tone" error on answer (I tell anyone I /want/ to call to expect it), all I did was pickup and at the tone the other end immediately hung up -- it was a bot, as I said. That was a couple months ago so it was 10 months with ZERO phone-spammers, the three in quick succession, and another couple months without. Thus, the speaking CID hasn't been nearly as useful as I expected it to be, but it has still been worth it, as I don't even have to look to know who's calling, now.
Since VoIP is actually competitive, prices only run about $20/mo (e911 and regulatory fees included, a bit more than that, $25-30, if paid month to month, a bit less, $15-20, if prepaid a year at a time, again including all the "extra" fees) including full US long distance coverage and all the other stuff the former monopolists want to charge an arm and a leg for, caller-id, three-way-calling, call-waiting, voice mail, etc. In fact, due to the competition, most providers add either even fancier features -- scheduled do-not-disturb, automated-wakeup-calls, the random-number-human-test thing I mentioned for no-CID calls above -- or limited international calling, sometimes including not only Canada but much of Western Europe in the same unlimited calling $20-ish/mo fee.
Sure I have the occasional echo or dropout, but unlike the former monopolists or the cableco's phone offering, these guys actually know how to treat a customer, and because one can now shop nationwide or even worldwide for providers, they don't forget it either, or their customers today simply end up someone else's customers tomorrow! There's no way I'd go back!
(FWIW, unlike Internet, I consider phone service including 911 service a luxury, and I keep e911 service altho it's not quite as direct now, so dropping the wired provider wasn't a problem. I've never had a cellphone as I've simply never been able to cost-justify the additional cost given my usage. Some may prefer keeping minimal measured-call service or the like, if they are uncomfortable losing the security of conventional 911 service.)
I'm not going to say who my provider is as this isn't about selling them. There's several providers out there with similar offerings. Just do your research. FWIW, I started with the commercial VoIP provider listing at Wikipedia tho I ended up with someone not listed there. If you REALLY want to know who it is, post a request and I'll say, but you really SHOULD do at least some o
Re:Two problems still (Score:2, Informative)
No, I meant in his /. posting. He's probably not the owner of "yourdomainnamegoeshere.com", but someone is: it's a registered domain. When you need an example domain name in a discussion about the internet please use "example.com", expecially in a textbook or a high-traffic site like /.. This has been a problem since the dawn of the internet, and "example.com" was reserved for just this reason. You'd be amazed how many people will click on/type in *any* domain name, just out of curiosity.
If you need to make up a phone number for use as an example in a public discussion, use the 555 prefix, which is reserved for that purpose. If you ned to make up a domain name for use as an example in a public discussion, use example.com (or .net or whatever), which is reserved for that purpose.
For testing, use the .test TLD (or .xy, or .tld, or .bogus, or .asixtythreecharacterstopleveldomainnamewhichisthelongestallowed or another TLD reserved for testing).
Re:Not the end state (Score:4, Informative)
It doesn't work like that.
Bad debts get resold from one agency to another.
In theory, each time it gets sold, it is cheaper (because there is less chance of collecting if everybody else has failed to collect so far).
Anyway, each new agency starts off with the same information, they don't pay heed to anything like do-not-call information from the previous agency's efforts (after all, that might be the reason the previous agency failed to collect).
Re:Not the end state (Score:2, Informative)
Yes, that's true.
http://xlr8.us/hofo/map.txt [xlr8.us]
You have to turn on "Call Restriction Support" and "Security > Settings > Restrict Calls".
Google for details.
Re:My Bad Review for the DNC List (Score:3, Informative)
Names don't "fall off" the DNC list. That was the original plan but the FCC decided that registrations would never expire when the first deadline to re-register approached. So you remain on the list.