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Web site is www.donotcall.gov
The toll-free number is 1-888-382-1222
In the past three months, the hallways at Groesbeck-based Tel-A-Sell
Marketing Inc. have become a lot less crowded. CEO
Edd O'Connor has been forced to trim his telemarketing staff from
72 to 18. "I was running a full house earlier this year,"
said O'Connor. One of the big reason for the cuts: the chilling
effects of the National Do Not Call Registry and other similar efforts
in statehouses across the country. A month into the sign-ups for
the federal Do Not Call list, nearly 30 million phone numbers across
the United States have been registered for the list. That number
could double by the time the list takes effect on Oct. 1. The ATA,
which is challenging the list in court, said the national list could
eventually cause more than 2 million lost telemarketing jobs.
Telemarketing
Industry Takes FCC to Court Over 'Do Not Call' Telemarketers
expanded their legal challenge to the government's do-not-call list,
suing a second federal agency over the call-blocking service for
consumers that the industry says will devastate business and cost
up to two million jobs. The free government registry for blocking
telephone sales pitches has grown to more than 28 million numbers
since it was opened June 27, according to the Federal Trade Commission,
which operates the service. The FTC has predicted registration to
grow to 60 million numbers by next summer. The American Teleservices
Association, an industry group that sued the FTC in January to stop
the list, asked the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver
on Friday to reject new regulations set by the Federal Communications
Commission.
Ten million users registered in four days. A few days later, it
was 20 million. This past Wednesday, less than a month after registration
opened for the
Federal Trade Commission's (FTC's) National Do Not Call Registry,
Americans had volunteered 28 million phone numbers, representing
over a third of all U.S. households. What's equally stunning is
89 percent of these numbers were registered online, making the FTC's
National Do Not Call initiative most probably the most successful
site launch. Ever. For two weeks after it went live on June 25,
the registry was the most searched-for site on the major search
engines, spiking the Nielsen//NetRatings charts. It wouldn't be
realistic to anticipate numbers like that for your next campaign,
but the registry's runaway success reveals important information
about online media's role in American life. "It's been an off-the-charts
hit," affirms Cathy MacFarlane, the FTC's public affairs spokesperson.
"We anticipated huge demand, and we got it."
Americans
have submitted 23 million phone numbers in the last two weeks for
the federal do-not-call registry. Telemarketers who call
the numbers on the list would face large fines once the registry
takes effect in October.
Consumers who used Yahoo Mail
e-mail accounts to register for the Federal Trade Commission's
new do-not-call service were met with an ironic twist Friday --
Yahoo's spam filter intercepted confirmation messages sent from
FTC servers. The glitch was discovered by Washington security firm
NetFrameworks during routine evaluations of spam filters that the
company performs for its clients.
People
eager to block telemarketing calls overwhelmed a government
Web site that began accepting phone numbers yesterday for a national
do-not-call registry. From 12:01 a.m. yesterday to 5 p.m., 735,000
numbers were registered through both a toll-free phone service and
the Web site, according to the Federal Trade Commission, which operates
the registry. This, despite the difficulty many people had logging
on to the registry's Web site, www.donotcall.gov.
List of State Do Not Call Registries
FCC
Warning of Telemarketing Identity Theft
Scam Using Do Not Call List as Bait
California
allows pre-registration for National Do Not Call List
California
Attorney General Shuts Telemarketing Scam
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