New rules require telemarketers to identify themselves on Caller ID

Associated Press | January 28, 2004

[HAL9000]

Washington-AP -- If you have Caller ID, take a look at it starting tomorrow when the phone rings -- and you'll know if a telemarketer is calling.

Federal regulations requiring telemarketing firms to identify themselves kick in tomorrow.

Up until now, telemarketing calls had shown up on Caller ID as "out of area." But either the name of the company trying to make a sale or the firm making the call now has to pop up -- along with a phone number customers can call to tell the company to stop calling.

The new regulations are part of the rules setting up the do-not-call registry. The telemarketing industry was against the registry, and an appeal is pending. But it supports the Caller ID requirement, saying it gives customers "the trump card" -- the option of not doing business with someone if they don't want to.

[steplock]

A REAL victory finally!

I would have preffered simply this option - that way the honest telemarketers (yes there are honest and mannerly marketers) would still be able to make a living without fear of massive lawsuits from the slime-pit-lawyer scums.

[Freedom4US]

Not so fast - technically, Caller ID requires a special phone or device, plus additional costs in the form of a monthly subscription. Remember, the public is the injured party here. Why should I have to spend another 8 bucks a month to identify people I don't want to talk to in the first place?

Instead of the farcical "Do not Call", we need precisely the opposite. "Please Call Me If You Want To Try And Sell Me Stuff Like Siding or Windows Registry". All other residential and private phone numbers are off limits to solicitation. An opt-in program makes the most sense.

[SandRat]

Got a telemarketing call for vertical blinds, said "Gee sounds great but I'm moving and I don't have the dimensions yet for the windows. I do have my new phone # why don't you give me a call in oh about 3 days, at (202) 224-3841." Won't he get a surprise to reach Senator Dianne Feinstein's office?

[Joe Bfstplk]

It is better than the CanSpam law.

[Freedom4US]

I had reason to take care of an aged relative for quite a while. He was getting a lot of phone calls from crooks and scammers, unbelievable. I downloaded the appropriate page from junkbusters.com and started giving them all h#ll. That cut down the calls by about 90 per cent.

One local firm needed a little persuasion in the form of a call to the state attorney general, and now that the US has the "do not call" registry, everything has slacked off completely.

People would blow a gasket if they knew how much scamming goes on with our senior citizens. You don't wanna know what I think we should do with those who prey on little kids
or "old people."

[SandRat]

You don't wanna know what I think we should do with those who prey on little kids or "old people."

Probably not any kinder than what I would like to see happen to the creators of computer viruses and worms.

[steve-b]

What ever happened to Saddam's shredders?

[SandRat]

Don't know but I was thinking of full MOPP4 in a room filled with Adamcite or Lewicite (both are arsenicals and vomiting agents) for 8 hours a day for about 60 days.

[TontoKowalski]

People would blow a gasket if they knew how much scamming goes on with our senior citizens.

Sadly, it's not just telemarketers. My elderly grandmother (God rest her soul) actually sent Jim and Tammy Faye Bakker $20 because of some televised crisis or other. Once she did that, they never left her alone. Something was in the mail from them every other day. She was a "special prayer partner" or some such nonsense. They "urgently" needed just a little more of her money.

Finally, her kids caught on, told her that she had been a member of the Baptist Church just down the road for more than 50 years. If she wanted to give every dime to them, it was OK, they'd call the preacher to come get it. And they begged her not to send those crooks another nickle.

It still frosts my hide after all these years to think that my naive grandmother was sending them money to feed starving children; meanwhile, they lived a life of luxury she would never dream of, and air-conditioned the dog house.