At one time, telemarketers were buying or collecting phone numbers as targets for sales calls. Today, telemarketers are purchasing many of the same numbers in order to
avoid calling them. The implementation of the national "Do-Not-Call" registry has resulted in over 50 million households registering their phone numbers. This list helps prevent unwanted phone calls reaching those who do not wish to be disturbed.
Numerous complaints have been made by consumers against telemarketers who have continued to call them. Faced with the consequences under the new regulations, telemarketing organizations are forced to delete the numbers on the national registry from their records.
And yet, many calls are still getting through. As of this article's post date, over 34,000 violation complaints have been lodged against the FTC. The FTC, for its part, is investigating the complaints and will presumably be handing out fines shortly.
The success of the do-not-call list is, of course, prompting many people to back the do-not-email list idea. I've covered this before in other articles on this site, but the main points deserve repeating: the do-not-call list idea works because telemarketers can't hide their phone numbers from the FTC.
The do-not-email list idea will fail for the same reason: spam is nearly impossible to trace.
About the author: Mike Adams is a consumer health advocate and award-winning journalist with a passion for sharing empowering information to help improve personal and planetary health He is a prolific writer and has published thousands of articles, interviews, reports and consumer guides, and he is well known as the creator of popular downloadable preparedness programs on financial collapse, emergency food storage, wilderness survival and home defense skills. Adams is an independent journalist with strong ethics who does not get paid to write articles about any product or company. In 2010, Adams co-founded NaturalNews.com, a natural health video sharing site that has now grown in popularity. He also launched an online retailer of environmentally-friendly products (BetterLifeGoods.com) and uses a portion of its profits to help fund non-profit endeavors. He's also a successful software entrepreneur, having founded a well known email marketing software company whose technology currently powers the NaturalNews email newsletters. Adams volunteers his time to serve as the executive director of the Consumer Wellness Center, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, and regularly pursues cycling, nature photography, Capoeira and Pilates.
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Monday, October 27, 2003
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