I hate telemarketers!!!

TELEMARKETERS CAN BE STOPPED!

Concerned about your privacy? Do telemarketers call you right in the middle of dinner? There is a law called the Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991 that went into effect in December, 1992.

The law forces telemarketers to maintain a list of those of us who don’t want to be called. Some consumer organizations say this it the best law that the Telemarketing industry could buy but it does provide some relief.

Consumers are able file suit under this law and recover damages if they can be prove that a telemarketer called after askeing them not to. Unfortunately, charities and non-profit organizations are exempt from this law and still may call.

Telemarketers are extremely upsetting to those of us who work nights because they call when we are sleeping.

Telephone companies will do the least to protect their customers privacy because the more telemarketers there are, the more money they make. Telephone companies also sell their customers names and addresses. Call them and asked them not to call you and also ask to be removed from the lists they sell to other companies.

Ironically, Ameritech has been one of the worst offenders. They keep calling after I have tried numerous times to get them to stop. If they call me again, they will get sued under the TCPA.

Customer information maintained by telephone companies are protected by law and can be released only through a court order. In other words, it takes a court order get an unlisted number from the phone company.

Telemarketers are not allowed to call cellular phones.

If you call 1-800 or 1-888 numbers, they can get your telephone number - even if it's unlisted. Companies that pay extra for services such as Call Detail from AT&T, your number will show up on their telephone bill (similar to the long distance call list that comes with your phone bill). They do have the right to know who is calling them since they are paying for the call.

Since there aren't any laws to prevent companies from selling your name, telephone number, buying habits, etc. to others, consumers need a law that will prevent companies from releasing this information to anyone without your permission.

Some states have laws that prevent telemarketers from to blocking their numbers from Caller ID. Since most telemarketing firms use an internal phone system (i.e. AT&T Dimension) and if you try to call that number back to ask them not to call, you will get a recording saying it isn’t a working number. So when a telemarketer calls, ask them to remove your name from their calling list the first time they call. Make a note of what company called along with the date and time. Also ask them to send you a copy of their "do not call" policy. If the company keeps calling, you can sue them under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act.

(Here's what worked for me and now I only get 1-2 calls a month.)

Try these suggestions:

Have your phone number unlisted. Costs extra but it is well worth it.

Have your name, address and phone number removed from a book called the City Directory published by R.L. Polk and another called Criss+Cross directory published by Haines & Co. These ‘reverse’ directories list residents by street name and have a numeric phone number listing cross referenced to the resident. The publishers of these books say their books are used by police and fire personnel to find your name, address, etc. in an emergency. Isn't that what 911 is for? Needless to say, telemarketers love these books! The addresses for the companies are:

R.L. Polk & Company
6400 Monroe Blvd.
Taylor, MI 48180
1-800-ASK-POLK
1-800-275-7655

Haines & Company
8050 Freedom Ave. NW
PO Box 2117
North Canton, OH 44720
1-800-321-4911

Visit your local library and ask if they have any other reverse directories. Look for the publishers name and address. Write to them and have your name, address and phone number removed.

Don’t have your telephone number printed on your checks. When paying by check or credit card and they ask for your phone number - tell them you don’t have a phone.

Write to the Telephone Preference Service, Direct Marketing Association, 6 East 43rd St., New York, NY 10163-3861. Give them your name, address, telephone number, and variations of name and asked to be remove all from the lists they sell. The problem with giving them your telephone number to remove is that they may not have had it to begin with. Companies that provide this type of 'service' are not legally obligated to remove your name, number, etc. or are they prevented from selling this information to someone else.

Other than just hanging up on telemarketers, here are some fun ways to get back at them:

Hand the phone to a young child to keep the telemarketer busy.

Ask for THEIR home phone number so you can call them when they're eating dinner.

If they call to sell you a service contract on an appliance, tell them you sold the item or that it was the biggest piece of junk you ever bought and you'll never buy another product from them.

When a home improvement company, etc. calls, them you or a relative is in that line of work. Or tell them you had it done last year.

When a basement water proofing company calls - tell them that you've always wanted an indoor swimming pool.

Tell them you are unemployed.

When you answer the phone and you don't recognize the callers voice, tell them your not home and ask if you can take a message. If they won’t leave a message, then they are probably a telemarketer.

If they have the nerve to ask for the number of a friend who may be interested in what they are selling - give them a phony name and the number of the pay phone at a bar or bowling alley.

If they want to sell you life insurance - tell them you won't be around to spend the money because you will be dead.

Excuse yourself long enough to inflate your whoopi cushion and let it do the talking for you.

Buy "The Final Word", keep it close to the phone and when they call - just press the button a few times.

Click here for some more excellent excuses!

There are several companies (such as ProCD and Phone Disc) that sell electronic directories on CD ROM. Some of these companies will let you search their name, address and phone number databases free on the net. Other electronic directories are published by Metromail (a major junk mailing list company). NYNEX Information Technologies (a subsidiary of New England telephone company) is another one. According to the NYNEX literature the directory contains some 77 million consumer and business names, addresses and phone numbers.

Some "low" lights from the packet:

"NYNEX FAST TRACK Digital Directory national version covers all 50 states on a nine-volume set of CD-ROM disks. You can retrieve listings by name, address, telephone number and/or ZIP code on virtually any PC with a CD-ROM drive."

Some of their suggested applications include: "Collection departments can locate directory information so that the company or person can be contacted for payment...Law enforcement agencies can match names and addresses to phone numbers...Government agencies can access information to locate individuals or verify information. Listings can be located and verified by entering a name, address, telephone number or zip code...Once the listing has been located, a few keystrokes allow users to display listings by street address, use a modem to automatically dial the telephone number, print listings in single line or label format or output to a file." Their phone number is 1-800-338-0646.

A month after requesting the info packet, I received a sales call from NYNEX even though I didn’t give them my phone number when ordering the information. No doubt they used their own software to call my unlisted number. They asked what I thought of the program and I told them that their database would be used by telemarketers to invade peoples privacy. The person I spoke to assured me that NYNEX won’t sell these CD's to telemarketers. Needless to say, I didn’t believe him.

For additional information on how we all have lost most of our privacy, read Jeffery Rothfeders excellent book "Privacy For Sale". The author goes into great detail about how computers and information gatherers have made all of our lives an open book for almost anyone who wants to know.