RSS3 out of 4 Registered for Do-Not-Call
By Ed Oswald | Published January 12, 2006, 1:21 PM
Three out of every four adults are now registered on the Federal Trade Commission's Do-Not-Call list, with a large majority saying they have seen a noticeable decrease in telemarketing calls. From January 2004 to the present, the number of adults registered climbed from 57 to 76 percent, a Harris Poll indicated.
18 percent of these registrants say they have received no calls since registration, with a majority, 61 percent, saying they receive far fewer calls. Only 7 percent say they either receive the same or more telemarketing calls since adding their names to the list.
Overall, the program seems to have a high success rate, with nine out of every 10 registrants seeing some kind of noticeable decrease in telemarketing calls.
The Do-Not-Call list allows U.S. registrants to prevent calls to both landline and cell phone numbers for a period of five years from the date of registration. Telemarketers have a period of 31 days to stop calling these numbers or face fines of up to $11,000.
Calls on behalf of political organizations, charities, telephone surveyors, as well as calls from companies that the consumer has a business relationship with or has agreed to receive calls from are still permitted.
Interested individuals can register at donotcall.gov.
The poll surveyed 1,961 adults age 18 or over between December 8 and 14, 2005, of which 1,571 said they registered for the Do-Not-Call list. The margin of error was plus or minus 2.5 percent.
I think that the DNC would be a good idea ....if those charitable and political organizations also could not call.... I mean if you dont want to be solicited then you do not want to be solicited ... to clarify, political and special interest groups shouldnt have a loop hole to continue to try to get your monies without competition.
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|the do not call works great for me even on my cell . now if they would come up with something for spam mail. life would be great
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|it works great for me .now if they would come up with away for spam mail we on the net would have it made thanks
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|I just registered my cell phone at the web site, which is the easiest way to do it.
Earlier, I registered all our home phones, and the results have been very satisfying. We used to get a lot of nuisance calls and now hardly ever get any.
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|Both my phone numbers are unlisted and I use a post box for my mail. Never had a problem :-)
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|To remove your name from most mailing lists, send your name and address to:
Mail Preference Service
Direct Marketing Association
P.O. Box 9008
Farmingdale, NY 11735-9008
Include your name and address in all the ways it appears on your junk mail. The Direct Marketing Association estimates that listing with their mail preference service will stop 75% of all national mailings to your address. Requests to stop junk mail are kept active for five years and will not affect companies you have previously ordered from. It may take up to six months for a request to make a noticeable difference in your mailbox.
I did this a few years back, and I don't get junk mail anymore.
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|why not just take them postage paid return envelopes and stuff em with the junk mail you get and send it back out? you don't gotta pay fer it, and maybe some of these companies would get the hint =)
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|I agree that we need a "do not mail" list as well. I am sick of getting mail to throw away. Its a waste of resources. Though junk mail is probably one reason the USPS is still in business. I'd rather have mail delivery once a week just to get rid of junk mail.
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|Here we go again, Ed Oswald doing a U.S.A centic new item, that the rest of the world simply does not care about.
Perhaps Mr. Ed Oswald, should open a world map and see how much bigger the planet really is.
I could post a new item out the U.K.'s TPS (Telephone Preference Service), but I realise that I live in a global community and the majority of readers would find it irevellent.
Is there no editorial vetting on BetaNews these days???
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|We have this thing in the USA called "Freedom of Speech", you can learn more about it here: http://usa.gov/.
No one forces you to read www.betanews.com. I'm sure there are plenty of other "techy" sites out there that stay focused on global issues, but no where on www.betanews.com does it say it must be ONLY global news.
~gally
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|what about a complete ban on any form of unsolicited advertising?!
if I didnt ask for it I DONT WANT IT
Monday morning I received 10 items thru the letter box, 2 letters and 8 junk (no name, leaflets, food menus etc)
I live in a small town, probably 5,000 homes, so... 8 junk x 5,000 homes = 40,000 in a single day - this is totally unacceptable.
Now-a-days we the 'consumer' can simple 'go online' and search for what we want (there are also telephone versions). If we have a need we can easily find a product to fit it.
But there are companys constanly trying to tell us we need something we dont.
Also why an 'opt out' scheme - why not NO to everything and then have an 'opt in' scheme.
75% say NO !!!
and probably the other 25% just havnt got round to it yet.
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|I agree. Everything in the way of advertising should be "opt in," not "opt out." I don't know why it should be automatically assumed that we want advertising.
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|I believe in europe it is that way.
The U.S. is hardcore b*tches to Madison avenue, and advertising is a massive industry with lobbyist ties to most lawmaking branches of federal and state gov's. The chance is slim to get pro-consumer bills passed if it effects advertising's bottom line.
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|I signed up initially when the list became available. I have to say, we've not had telemarker calls....so agreed. It is working. And yes, let's have a No Mail list!
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|Yeah, "Do-Not-eMail" list fill be AWESOME!
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|Email spam usually comes from other countries so that wouldn't do much good at all, unfortunately.
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|or an email list
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|Next up: A "Do Not Fax" list, PLEASE!
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|Federal law already has a do not fax provision, it's ignored and not enforced. Trust me I've tried many many times.
http://www.junkbusters.com/fax.html
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|That's sad considering fax spam costs the most for the receiver (when compared to telephone/mail/email spam), since the receiver pays for the toner, etc.
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|I haven't recieved any calls that would break the rules as stated above. So yea it works pretty well I think.
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|Telemarketers used to call us almost every day. AT&T was two or three times a week. These inconsiderate slobs are the reason, that I signed up with www.donotcall.gov. No more BS from them at all so it works for us too.
Now, maybe the government can do something about all of these frigging real estate agents and bank loan officers. I drown in "wanna sell your house" ads and pre-filled out loan forms in my e-mail box. These boorish losers are worse than the boner enlargement ads and phony overseas lottery scams...
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