FTC: 200 Million Sign Up For Do Not Call Registry

The caller is looking for the person who had that number before you got it.  That person probably got rid of the number because they were being harassed.  

If they are calling your cell phone you can assign them "no ring" as a ring tone.  That won't stop the calls, but it will keep them from bothering you.

It's okay to complain about government.
It's another to be part of the problem.
You offer no evidence for such an idiotic position.

It is companies that do this, not the government. Yet somehow people here keep adding 2 + 2 and coming up with 22. It is not BIG GOVERNMENT who is behind these constant phone calls. The government is trying to help. Good lord.

"AFAIK, it is the FTC who runs the DNC list, not the FCC.  As to staffing - if the politicians wanted this to be an effective law they would provide for adequate staff.  The fines could pay the cost of operation if it were being vigorously enforced."

Right. And where's the money supposed to come from to pay for this "adequate staff?" Tax payers? The Right Wing has demonized taxes to the extent that we can't afford anything anymore except, apparently, endless meaningless war.

I'm on the Do Not Call Registry and ... Cap One, Wells Fargo, etc are still calling

Creeps!!!

I have a simpler solution. Every on has a phone, and a phone company. That phone company knows when you get or make a call. New federal law: Part one--All phone companies WILL collect 50 cents from every customer every time that customer makes a phone call. Part two--All phone companies will subtract from each customer's bill, 50 cents for each call that the customer answers.

The feds cant police every little dinky company in the world, but they can police the phone cos. I can count my phone calls and if my phone co does not reimburse me for my time, they I call the feds. Phone cos will already be motivated to collect from the callers. Now all we have to do is to elect a few real representatives who are properly motivated to represent their constituents rather than their lobbyist.

Thank you Lone Ranger for reiterating this fundamental truth ... "Never underestimate the degree of incompetence, lethargy, and corruption which has taken hold in the Federal government"
I would add, not just federal government...
I worked for "the government" (both at the state and county levels) I was nearly destroyed by my former "employer" for doing exactly what they urged any/all government employees to do if they saw "incompetence, lethargy, corruption:" they had a nice big poster in the employee lounge that read "WHISTLEBLOWERS ARE PROTECTED....bla bla bla... I was not protected: they systematically harassed, punished and nearly destroyed me: I was forced into early disability retirement for exposing their incompetence, lethargy, and corruption!
Government is the most fertile ground for incompetence, lethargy, and corruption, and is the most dangerous of all institutions. Our government has become really, really scary... not that I would trade it for any other country's....I grew up abroad and this country is still safer than anywhere else on this planet   BUT really... anyone who still has faith in any public agency to fulfill its mandates, rules, glorious "mission statements" or promises made during election speeches.... is just plain naive....
the day is coming when our government will shock and surprise Americans: shake them to the core...
much the same way Germans woke up to what the Nazi party had done while "governing" them!

Bobb....

try actually reading what you quote to make your point....

You ask Where's the money supposed to come from to pay for this "adequate staff"

the answer is in Lone Ranger's sentence you quoted.... "the fines could pay ....if it were....enforced."

hey, By the People,

you can't read either.... Bobb quoted the Lone Stranger, not Lone Ranger... duh!

My bro lives in Texas and his phone company has a feature that blocks each and every call UNLESS you are on a list of "allowed" callers. When i call from any other phone besides my home or cell phone (which are on his "allow this caller to ring through"), I can't get through until I identify myself and my brother says it's ok to connect the call, which works when they're home, but not if they are away! So there are ways to protect from unwanted calls, unfortunately, it probably isn't "free"

"FTC: 200 Million Sign Up For Do Not Call Registry"



And 200 millon people still get calls.

The solution is simple. Unplug your landline. Turn your cell on only when you want to make a call. If a scammer's autodialers continue to get no answer, the phone number will drop off the list eventually.They only have a chance at making money off phones that are answered. Let it be known to those who want to call you on your personal phone that you are home and receiving calls at a certain time of day. This limits the telemarketing calls you get.

As for financial service companies and banks, you usually have to write and tell them not to contact you. If you do or ever have done business with them, they assume they have the right to call you unless you specifically tell them not to contact you with offers. It's one of many loopholes Congress left their big contributors. Read the tiny print on the brochures they send for the do-not-contact-me address.

The no-call list is a joke. If there were enforcement teeth in the law, these scammers would be doing hard time and their money would have been confiscated to finance the enforcement of the law. Law enforcement agencies, especially the feds, do civil forfeiture all the time against people they only suspect of law breaking. Why don't they track down these scammers and use this "tool" against them? That could put a stop to it. This isn't the place to get into a discussion of civil forfeiture, but whatever your position on it, it seems like it could work against telemarketers.

I am only responding to the first post, as I believe that is the most ridiculous option that I've seen anyone spit out reading these articles. Why should *I* circulate MY time around someone who is ILLEGALLY hounding me? That is not SOLVING the problem. That's just sweeping the damn thing under the rug. I'll be god-damned if I'm going to have telemarketers make me have to turn off my communication to people that may need to get in touch with ME! My brother getting in a wreck isn't going to wait till tomorrow at 3 when I plug my phone line back in, it's going to do it when it damn well pleases! [***]! How much of a [***] are you willing to be to these demons?

The Federal "Do-Not-Call" Registry is a big joke! There's so many Loopholes particularly the Charities & Surveyors that for the most part it's ineffective. For once I would like to answer the phone without the Colorado FOP-Metroplex Chapter pestering me incessantly for donations (& the same when it comes to the DAV-Disabled American Veterans in Denver with their "robocalls" about their donation trucks being in the neighborhood. I blocked one number the DAV uses for their calls, and they got around my phone block with another number!)

I was just about to ask about where the penalties go.  $5.3 million is a lot of money.  Just some advice.  I kept getting those scam calls 2 & 3 times a day.  I tried ignoring them.  Hang up on them.  But what seems to have worked as far as the phone calls are concerned is answer it & let them listen to some high volume music (close to the phone receiver).  No calls for 2 days now.
Beware people, when the letters start they will come from your past.  I received the first today & the salutation was to a company I worked for approximately 15 years ago.  They use form letters and are produced in mass.  A clue to this are miss-spelled salutations.  If they can't get it right more than likely it is a scam.  More over this company was never domiciled in any of the 2 states mentioned.