The FTC'’s do-not-call list website was flooded with people trying to get on the list. According to the Washington Post at one point 108 people per second were attempting to register. But as k2.com points out, removing names from the do-not-call list is a cinch:
Well, it turns out that anyone can just unregister a phone number also. It's trivial to obtain an anonymous e-mail address through Yahoo or HotMail. If I want you back on my list, I'll just unregister you and then call you. There's no protection. It would be trivial to write a program that registered every phone number and equally trivial to unregister them.
Other limitations of the law include any company reserves the right to call up to 18 months (!) after a transaction unless the customer opts out, and exempts political organizations, charities, surveys and insurance companies.
The best solution? Get a cell phone. With the adoption of my cell phone as my principle number, I have escaped telemarketers and discovered a pleasant bit of news: telemarketing to cell phones, because the owner pays for both incoming and outgoing calls, is illegal. And no more Saturday morning phone solicitations!
Posted at June 30, 2003 09:36 AMThis discussion has been closed. No more comments may be added.