Starting today: Caller IDs to reveal telemarketer numbers

[Analog]

Caller IDs to reveal telemarketer numbers


WASHINGTON ? Starting today, if you have Caller ID you?ll know when a telemarketer is trying to reach you.

That?s when Federal Trade Commission regulations kick in requiring telemarketing firms to identify themselves.

Such calls had shown up on Caller ID as ?out of area.? Now the name displayed by Caller ID must either be the company trying to make a sale or the firm making the call. The display must also include a phone number that consumers can call during regular business hours and ask that the company no longer call them.

The change is part of the rules that set up the do-not-call registry, which consumers can use to block certain telemarketers from calling.

The do-not-call registry, which took effect in October, has 56.3 million phone numbers.

People can register numbers or file complaints at www.donotcall.gov or by calling (888) 382-1222. Firms that call numbers on the list face fines of up to $11,000 for each violation.

 

[NikPreviousAcct]

w0ot

 

[Pepsei]

Bahahaha, I love it... but after signing up to the do not call list, strangely, I haven't got ANY telemarketer calls.

 

[StageLeft]

Too sweet! We still get very very few telemarketing calls, but for the most part since that list has kicked in our calls have gone from ~5/day to like 1 every few days I love it. I hope that all of the people engaged in it end up on the street starving. And now with the last couple of unknown callers having to identify themselves I'll never have to worry about it again. Of course with caller ID I don't answer the phone unless I know who it is anyway.

 

[DurocShark]

I always thought that was the whole point of a caller ID. Seems to me that business should NOT be allowed to hide their numbers.

But, then again, I don't have caller ID on my landline...

 

[SagaLore]

This is very very good news, and I'm actually quite glad the government is intervening. Will this new regulation apply to outsourced telemarketing firms, over there in India? Most of my calls now come from them, and they always sound so agitated that I don't want to hear their whole offer, sometimes I feel bad for them because I know this is how they support their families.

 

[loup garou]

Awesome.

 

[MustISO]

That great. Now when is the gov't going to control the price of gas!

 

[alkemyst]

how are work at home telemarketers getting handled?

I was told by one they work for themselves so don't have to tell me who they are and the company is 'them'....which I know is a BS answer, but could these companies follow that thinking now?

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