How to Get Rid Of Telemarketers

Telemarketing is brutal. I should know. I worked as an outbound telemarketer for 2 years when I was in college and I still have to shower for an extra 5 minutes each day because I feel so unclean from the experience. Most people hate being called by telemarketers and, truthfully, most of them hate calling you. Back in the 1990's when I worked the phones there was no such thing as a Do-Not-Call registry. People just cursed you out and you marked their number as DNC (Do Not Call) on your computer screen. Invariably, the companies doing these marketing campaigns would ignore the DNC numbers and throw them into the next campaign. Then you ended up calling that person again which made them even angrier. I'm sure the many complaint letters to the FCC (or the CRTC in Canada) led to the creation of the Do-Not-Call Improvement Act of 2007 which cleaned up the process of getting people out of those war dialer lists. For those of you that are still receiving lots of calls from telemarketers please read the steps below on some tips for stopping the calls.

Things You'll Need

• A phone. Strangely, telemarketers don't target people without phones.

Instructions

1. For telemarketing enterprises that cold call the phone book there is really only one recourse: The National Do-Not-Call list. Registering your phone numbers (remember to register your mobile numbers too) will usually wipe you off the list of an above-the-board telemarketer within a month or so. However, there are limits to the Do-Not-Call registry's reach. For example, they cannot stop charities, political organizations, surveys or companies with an existing business relationship from calling you.

2. For an exhaustive FAQ on the registry please check out the following link:

   http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/edu/pubs/consumer/alerts/alt107.shtm

   You can register your numbers on the Do-Not-Call registry here:

   https://www.donotcall.gov/default.aspx

   You can register here for the Canadian Do Not Call list:

   https://www.lnnte-dncl.gc.ca/index-eng

3. As noted above, the FTC and FCC's jurisdictions are limited and they cannot prevent organizations that have a pre-existing business relationship from calling you. Many of these organizations actually have valid reasons for calling you and may have genuinely good offers for you. Take a bank for example. Most banks have reason to call their customers regarding their accounts, fraud prevention and other important customer-specific reasons which do not fall under the heading of 'telemarketing'. However, many of these institutions also attempt to cross-sell their products or services to their customers in order to boost revenue. Take note of the large institutions you deal with and contact them if they are in the business of cross-selling their services to you. Most of them can fine-tune their marketing machine by cutting out certain products and only calling you at certain times of the day/week or on certain phone numbers. Most of them will gladly abide by your wishes in order to preserve the business relationship.

4. In the case where a third party telemarketer calls on behalf of an organization not covered by the Do Not Call registry, you are entitled to request that your name be removed from that telemarketer's call list. By law, they are obliged to honor your request and cannot call you again. If they do so, you can file a formal complaint with the FTC/FCC here :

   http://esupport.fcc.gov/complaints.htm

   The FTC/FCC can fine telemarketers up to $11,000 per violation of this rule.

   And for Canadian complaints:

   https://www.lnnte-dncl.gc.ca/plt-cmp-eng

   PrivacyRights.org has a great deal of information on how to lodge a complaint with the FCC/FTC. Go to Part 6 of the following document:

   http://www.privacyrights.org/fs/fs5-tmkt.htm

Resources

• Do Not Call List FAQ
• FCC Home Page
• CRTC Home Page
• PrivacyRights.org Fact Sheet on Telemarketing
• The National Do Not Call List