It's Final! House Extends Do-Not-Call Registry

News

The House voted to make permanent the program protecting people from telemarketer calls, relieving consumers from having to renew their participation in the do-not-call registry.

After Congress in 2003 created the do-not-call registry shielding millions of people from those dinnertime interruptions from telemarketers, the Federal Trade Commission wrote rules requiring consumers to re-register their phone numbers every five years.

The new legislation would eliminate that requirement by making the list permanent. At the same time, it requires the FTC to periodically remove numbers that have been disconnected and reassigned.

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Comments

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  • 0
    Chris
    | 1 reply
    Great news!
  • 0
    mnkyslut
    Brilliant!  I wonder, why wasn't something so sensible included originally?
  • 0
    Thomas
    Now why not extend it to annoying politicians and charities you may have never heard of? If we don't see a name on caller-id, we don't answer.
  • 0
    lgh
    Ditto, Thomas.  I wish we could block politicians and charities also.  Seems like we should be able to only get the calls we want.
  • 0
    Steely
    It is a further step in the right direction. Honestly, they should just make all telemarketing and spam illegal. I do not see why we should be harassed in our own homes for someone's "business opportunity".
  • 0
    JESSE
    I get SO many charity telemarketing calls, it's unreal.  I've had 3 already today.  Vietnam Vets, Police Athletic League, and some environmental group.  I am sick and tired of these calls and they just DO NOT STOP.  Someone needs to change the law so these people need to follow the Do Not Call registry as well.
  • 0
    Ozzie
    They're calling in NM as well. I don't answer until I've checked here. And if they don't leave a message, I don't call them back.
  • 0
    Jordan replies to Chris
    i just tried this. I hope it works!

    Per-Call-Blocking:

    USA: Dial *67 before you dial the number. If you have Caller ID blocked permanently, dial *82 to unblock for a given call.
  • 0
    ohio
    | 3 replies
    I just found my local phone company offers a incoming call control feature. I can add as many numbers as I want to the list and it will block them forever. Simply call and add the service to your line. Then after you recieve a call hang up and *96 and the last incoming number will be blocked.
  • 0
    K.O. replies to ohio
    | 2 replies
    If you do the *96 to block the last call from calling again, how do you undo that feature in case you accidentally block a good number?
  • 0
    Jeff replies to K.O.
    | 1 reply
    First, if you are still using a local phone company (and you are not an Internet user) then you should switch to a VoIP company.  The price difference is significantly different.  (Having the N-standard in your router improves the Quality of Service (QOS) sufficiently that VoIP is better than local service in most cases.)  And, your national long-distance is free as well.

    Second, all the VoIP companies I know of offer call blocking for free.

    In summary, you pay less and get number blocking for free.
  • 0
    Jeff replies to Jeff
    "and you are not an Internet user" should have been "and you are an Internet user"
  • 0
    Jason
    Yeah, that's a great news.  I haven't received any telemarketing calls every since registered with National-Do-Not-Call-List
  • 0
    Home Business
    | 2 replies
    As a business owner, it is irritating that business-to-business calls are exempt from the donotcall.org list, businesses who harass -- errr, I mean solicit --- other busnesses are not required to utilize donot call, & such calls are an intrusion.
  • 0
    Scott in Ohio replies to Home Business
    | 1 reply
    If you are a business, you should appreciate telemarketing calls.  If you are a one man show, who doesn't have time for them, tell the telemarketer you are too small to use their services.  They don't want to waste their time anymore than yours.  Also, if you are a home business, you CAN list your number on the Do Not Call list.  Good luck.
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