“Who is this? Are you a telemarketer?” If you can narrow it down to what state the telemarketer is calling from, you may wish to contact that state’s Attorney General. You should also contact the Federal Trade Commission. Both agencies use this vital information to go after businesses that may have bad telemarketing practices, on a state and/or national level.
Should you add your phone numbers to the state or federal Do Not Call Lists? It is recommended that you do both. State and federal laws differ. If you have your number on both lists, then you are guaranteed that fewer telephone solicitors will call. Plus, the Federal Trade Commission updates their lists on a quarterly basis, as opposed to the Attorney General’s monthly basis. One list may be updated more often, and another list may not have certain telemarketers banned on it, based on state or federal laws. So, it’s best to cover both bases.
Both the AG and FTC lists expire after 5 years, telephone solicitations are only allowed between “8 a.m. to 9 p.m.”, and telemarketers have about one month within the date of registration to remove you from their lists. If you change phone numbers or have a number disconnected, there is no need to contact either agency. This information is updated regularly. If you wish to report a complaint on a call, you need to have a company’s name or phone number of the representative calling and the time the call took place.
If you are having concerns with telemarketing complaints, the Attorney General and Federal Trade Commission are both good places to begin with. Your Better Business Bureau also can give you some guidance. Feel free to contact us!
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I have my number on both do not call list, and I get an average of 6-10 calls a week. I tell them im on the do not call list and that dosnt seem to stop them. I had 1 young lady tell me they dont go by that, even if I get rude I get another call the next night from the same soliciter just a differant person there is no stopping them
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This person will not stop contacting me from craigslist after i put up a post for trade of a gift card. He’s more than likely a scam artist and he’s probably not just harassing me. Good luck. Here’s his email address. It’s ridiculous snoopy_joe_one@yahoo.com im prior service and a veteran. Plz make this stop.
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Both the AG and FTC lists expire after 5 years. This is only partial correct. Do Not Call registrations are now permanent. Telephone numbers placed on the National Do Not Call Registry will remain on it permanently do to the Do Not Call Improvement Act of 2007, which became law in February 2008.
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For the past two months, SOMEONE got my wife’s name, and we’ve been getting as many as 4 calls a day (we have two pages of “logs” of the calls!). Both our cell and land-line phones are (and have been for years, but also “confirmed” recently) on the Do Not Call Registry, but it makes NO difference. I finally gave up reporting the callers (I get their numbers, SOMETIMES, by the ” *69 ” method, but the area codes are fictional, as are the numbers!)
The same persons KEEP calling, saying the wife has won a sweep-stakes, but needs to pay “Taxes” or “Insurance” up-front (anywhere from $500 to $10,000.00!). When I told one caller (that I recognized by his voice and poor English) that I had reported his call, he said “Go F*** Yourself!” and hung up! SO they are the nastiest people on earth!
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The Do Not Call registry is a joke. I’ve been on it for years and have re-upped every five years as required by the AG and FTC and I still get several telemarketing calls a day. The telemarketers know we can’t do anything about it. Reporting unwanted calls to state AGs and the FTC accomplishes nothing. The AGs and FTC say they look for “patterns” but telemarketers are way ahead of them. They change their phone numbers, but even better, they fake out the caller ID. Anyone can make up a fake caller ID number so we can’t even find out where the call is coming from. Do you think the telemarketers would actually give us a traceable number?
Unfortunately, we are stuck with these sleazebag telemarketers. I’ve decided it’s just part of life and have chosen to no longer get stressed out about it. I block the ones that call repeatedly. If I get a call from a number I don’t recognize I pick up and immediately hang up to cut off the call and happily go about my day.
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Al,
You are correct. The Do Not Call List is an absolute joke. I get the same calls over and over, report them to the AG, get a form letter telling me they can’t (or won’t) do anything about it.
The AG is as much a joke as the Do Not Call List. Absolutely worthless
Best thing to do is a line that if for the public, put an answering machine on it, and ignore it. If someone must contact you, give them your cell phone number but try to keep that very private.
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I haven’t seen this mentioned anywhere except seeing other people with the same complaint. What has happened to me is that someone has created an email account in my name. They have been using this to request information from various sources and giving my phone number and email address. This means I have been getting many phone calls and emails. The problem is that the telemarketers aren’t doing anything wrong because someone requested a call, so the FTC won’t go after them. Microsoft won’t do anything about the email account (or even respond to my emails) because there is no way for me to provide a trail and prove who’s who, and they just don’t see it as their problem. And I cannot figure out a way to even find out who’s doing it.
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Please stop calling at my phone de home and celular please no more
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Belkis
Maybe they keep calling you because you can’t spell or put a sentence together?
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I use a land line with an answering machine (ringer on low). This number is my ‘default’ phone number and the only one I ever give out. Now I just periodically replay messages, keeping any important information. Family and friends know to call me on my cell. A nuisance but what else can you do?
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Rachel the Consumer Oct 29 at 01:19 PM
I STOPPED THE CALLS from 312-583-9693:[Sun, Oct 28, 2012 3, 5:15, 5:16, 6:12, 7:25, 8:12 pm]. Checked reverse directory & many internet sites with complaints associated w/Ameritech-IL. I chose 1 of their companies- AT&T. Went on AT&T chatline & said every time I get a call, I’ll use At&T chatline & send AT&T email til calls stop. Texted caller #:”Stop Calling NOW” for each call on my cell phone regardless of whether they read it. Went to AT&T chatline 2nd time after last 2 calls and re-iterated what I said 1st time & told rep 2nd email coming plus 4 more chats and 4 more emails after this chat (‘cuz I got 6 calls). Within minutes, got call from AT&T rep on my landline. So within an hour of my 2 chats & 1 email, AT&T apologized & calls stopped. I thanked him but promised that I would step up my chats & emails to 2 chats/emails, then 3 chats/emails, write everyone, etc., every time I get a new call.
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I’d like to see a DDOS (distributed denial of service) tool that consumers could get/use to flood telemarketers’ ip telephony phone servers.
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I used a callblocker called T-Lock and then check badnumbers.com whenever a new number comes in.
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The Do Not Call List is a complete joke. I mean JOKE. I get 4-6 calls every single day. I get home and I look on my caller ID from numbers that do not leave messages and I do not know them. When I am home I also get the calls. I have made a number of complaints with the Do Not Call list on the same callers. I know you can sue but the problem is first the number they give on the caller ID is never their real numbers and second you would have to follow their market pitch and have someone to come out to your house. Then you would have to record that person coming to your house and you would have to get their license plate numbers. I do not feel comfortable with these people coming to my home. The calls are just two types of businesses home improvement and financial. How many out their heard the one from “Hi this is Ann”. Come on FTC do something with this list and start investigating and put these people in prison with long jain terms. That is the only way this will stop. Send them a lesson. I called the FTC and they said they would only investigate if they had a number of complaints from the same company. The telemarketers know nothing will happen to them if they keep calling. I know you do not have to answer your phone but you still have to get up and look at the caller ID and that is a pain in the neck even at 8:00PM. I hope more news organizations do more reports on how worthless the Do Not Call list is. I wrote both my Senators and my local congressman last year and I did no hear back from any of my representatives. Good luck on getting their help too. So again I say the the Do Not Call List is worthless. I would say telemarketers are the scum of the world.
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The do not call list is JOKE!!! You people should be ASHAMED of yourself for getting paid to do NOTHING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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One problem with the National Do Not Call Registry is that it takes so long to file a complaint that during that time at least one telemarketer will call during that time.
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Don’t be rude. His/her spelling has nothing to do with anything. He/she still has the right to not be harassed. Besides, if English is not his/her primary language (which is what I suspect), then the sentence structure would obviously not be the same.
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