Stop Telemarketers

Many people who have their dinners interrupted for sales calls want to know how to stop telemarketers from calling. A few years ago, the United States government made this process easier. They set up a Do Not Call registry to help people stop telemarketers from calling when they are not wanted.

When you add a phone number to the listing, telemarketers have 31 days to stop calling you before you can file a report with the Federal Trade Commission, the agency that oversees the registry. The government created the registry as a way for people to stop telemarketers without spending significant amounts of time sending letters to specific companies. The process to stop telemarketers now is simple. You visit the FTC’s Do Not Call website and enter your telephone number, email address, and name. You will receive a confirmation email letting you know that your request went through. You should see a reduction in the number of telemarketing calls you receive within a month of your registration. The calls likely will begin to reduce a day or two after you register, but you must give companies the full time to comply with the regulations.

There are four types of calls that will not be limited through the registry: political organizations, charities, telephone surveys, and companies with which you have a prior business relationships. You may stop telemarketers from these groups by asking the specific caller to be placed on their organization’s do not call list. Those companies cannot continue to call you once they have received your request for the calls to end. The FTC also has a system in place for Americans to file complaints about calling violations. The agency does not answer problems individually, but they do track patterns. While a single violation call will not land a company in hot water, a pattern of calling people who are registered can result in criminal action against that company.