Telemarketers to pay for making illegal calls

Consider for a moment the utter lack of awareness required to fit either of these explanations. The idea that a telemarketing company remains unaware of the do-not-call list is, naturally, unbelievable. The most likely conclusion is #2: they knew about the list and just decided to keep calling people anyway.

Note that this is a state do-not-call list, by the way, not the federal list. But it works in almost exactly the same way. Every telemarketing firm is required to filter their own call lists against the state-organized do-not-call list. The name says it all: "Hey, do not call these people!"

And yet, as this article explains, this firm continued calling people on the list. Perhaps they were hoping people wouldn't notice. Maybe they thought the state wouldn't bother to prosecute them. Or maybe they're just so downright unsophisticated that none of these thoughts or possibilities even crossed their minds. "Dial for dollars! Forget the brains!"

But it isn't just the states who are going after telemarketers. Soon the FTC will be turning up the heat, too, and we'll start seeing national headlines about phone spammers being caught, fined, and otherwise punished for interrupting peoples' lives.