Information on the National Do Not Call Program
Businesses
The responsibility for checking the Do Not Call Registry for numbers is on any commercial organization who regularly engages in telemarketing. The FTC provides a list of all numbers at www.telemarketing.donotcall.gov. To access the list, a business need only create a profile that gives identifying information, such as the name of the company, a phone number and an e-mail address. You will then be contacted and are required to provide a name, address and authorized representative.
The only information on the list is phone numbers, with no names or addresses attached to them. Once a number appears on the list, it is against the regulations of the Do-Not-Call Implementation Act of 2003. Fines can be up to $11,000 per offense. Phone numbers listed are grouped by area code, which will make it easier for you to sort through numbers. You can register for a subscription to individual area codes for a small fee. You will be given a report each month on each area code that you have subscribed to. Remember that though the list is constantly updated, you have 31 days to stop calling a residential phone number. Therefore, you must consult the list at least once every 31 days. Once a number appears on the registry, it must be removed from your company’s telemarketing call list.
Compliance
“Seller” is the term used to describe those individuals or groups who are covered by the Do Not Call Registry. A seller is defined as one who uses a telemarketing transaction to provide, offer to provide, or arranges for others to provide goods or services. A telemarketer is the person who initiates such calls to customers, and a seller can simultaneously be a telemarketer.
Sellers are people responsible for purchasing a subscription to the Do Not Call Registry at www.telemarketing.donotcall.gov. Upon signing up, a seller will receive a Subscription Account Number, which will be used to access the Registry. Find out your Employer Identification Number, provided by the Internal Revenue Service. If you do not have such a number and are the sole owner of your business, you can use your Social Security Number. The registry is subdivided by area codes, which you will subscribe to based upon the areas your company makes telemarketing calls to. Each area code is represented by a file which you can download. Simply select the area codes you would like and save them to your computer. You can download the numbers in an area code in a flat-text file (which is simple text, with numbers divided by commas) or an XML-tagged file (which can be manipulated into other file types).
The list is updated daily, and you can download your area codes as many times as you want. It is the responsibility of the business or seller to create a plan for implementing the removal of these numbers from calling lists. Non-compliance can result in a fine up to $11,000. Subscriptions will last for a year, and you will be able to renew your subscriptions when there is a month remaining. The expiration of your subscription is listed each time you log on to the system. While you can download the complete list whenever you choose, you can also download the “Change List,” which is comprised of only those numbers in your area codes that have been added or removed from the list since your last login.
List Brokers and other Service Providers
There are companies, called List Brokers, which offer a service which makes compliance with the Do Not Call Registry automatic. By connecting the phones of your telemarketers to their service, they constantly monitor the Registry and only allow calls to go through which are not on the list. Not only is every call instantly checked against the Federal Trade Commission’s federal registry, it looks for state lists and monitors your business’ internal list. If there are any limits on telemarketing calls on the state or local level, such as curfews that prohibit calling past a certain hour, your List Broker will take them into account and block calls that infringe on them.
Many list brokers also provide a service which allows consumers who call your business with the intent to be removed from your calling list to simply use their touchtone phone. Businesses can avoid resources on this service. A company will receive online reports, which give a complete list of companies you are able call and what area codes you have called. All activity undertaken by a List Broker will be provided to a manager in charge within your company. Such services are also available for telemarketing via Fax, E-Mail, and standard mail.
When entering into business with a List Broker, you still must pay for a subscription to the Do Not Call Registry. List Brokers are not authorized to purchase access and then use it multiple times for many companies. However, some brokers will include the cost of the registration in their overall fee.
Exceptions
Contrary to popular belief, private homes are not protected from all telemarketers. Only those for-profit companies which are attempting to sell a particular good or service can be blocked. There are still a number of organizations which are not subject to the Do-Not-Call Implementation Act of 2003.
- Non-Profit Entities: these include political organizations, charities, and telephone surveyors.
- Commercial groups: if a consumer has a previous relationship with a company, specifically making a purchase or other monetary transaction with them in the last 18 months, that business may still call. However, one can ask to be put on that company’s own Do Not Call list.
- Businesses are not eligible for the Do Not Call Registry, in that they can still be contacted by telemarketers.
One loophole that many businesses attempt to utilize is that of survey. Educational or commercial entities that are collecting research and not attempting to sell a product or service are not restricted by the Registry. Therefore, many groups will have a charitable or research-oriented branch which will ask during a call for permission to make a follow-up call. This follow-up is invariably a business call, and because permission was granted previously, one’s number on the Do Not Call Registry will be negated for that particular company. If you have called a company requesting information about them or as part of a job application, that company can call your home for up to 3 months for telemarketing purposes. However, at any time, you can request to be removed from their calling list.
If you do not choose to be on the Do Not Call Registry, at any time you can still contact specific companies and demand to be taken off their calling lists. Cellular phones are already blocked from telemarketing, so while you can add those numbers to the Do Not Call Registry you should not be receiving telemarketing calls anyway. Bill collectors are not covered by the Do Not Call Registry, but earlier legislation governs the calls they make (such as calling at reasonable hours).
Registration
Registration is simple and easy to do. It can be done online or via telephone. To register by phone, you must call from the phone number you wish to have added to the registry. Registration is free, and if you receive a call at any time offering to add your number to the registry for a fee, it is not legitimate.
Online registration requires an e-mail address. This is so that registration can be confirmed. You can add up to three numbers at a time to the list, and each number will send a separate confirmation e-mail for you to approve. If you have more than three phone numbers (residential, as businesses are not covered), you may go through the website registration process as many times as necessary.
Online registration and confirmation of an already-registered number can be found at www.donotcall.gov. To register by phone and to confirm that a number has been added to the list, call toll-free 1-888-382-1222. If you move and receive a new phone number, you will have to register it again. However, if you are reassigned a new area code but keep the same local number, you will not need to re-register. Additionally, if you move and keep the same number, it will remain registered. Getting a new number does not mean you need to cancel your old one.
Complaints
Complaints should be directed to www.donotcall.gov or by calling 1-888-382-1222. You will need to provide the following information: who called (the name of the caller), the company they were calling on behalf of, what good or service they were attempting to interest you in, and if possible, the phone number they called you from (or can be contacted at). The following criteria are necessary to qualify a call as against the Do-Not-Call Implementation Act of 2003. First, the organization calling must be for-profit, and you must not have had a prior business relationship with that organization. If so, you must fulfill ONE of the following:
- Your number is on the Do Not Call Registry, you did not give explicit permission to that company to call, and you have not had a prior business relationship with them.
- OR
- The telemarketer’s automatic telephone dialing system simultaneously called two ore more lines of your multi-line service.
- OR
- The call was a pre-recorded message.
- OR
- The call was received on a cell phone.
- OR
- The call was a telemarketing follow-up to a non-profit call that you did not consent to.
- OR
- The caller does not clearly state their identity or a number to be reached at that is not a 900 number.
- OR
- The call was from a company that you asked to specifically not be called by, and more than 30 days but less than 5 years have elapsed since that request.
History of it All
The National Do Not Call Registry actually has its roots in the Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991. At that time, Congress created the laws that kept telemarketers from calling after 9 PM and before 8 AM. It also set up solicitor Do Not Call lists, which forces businesses to keep a list of consumers who have asked that company specifically not to call them. Congress also ensured that businesses were required to provide their own name, the name of the company they were calling on behalf of, and a number that they could be reached at in the future.
On March 11, 2003, after overwhelming public demand, Congress amended the 1991 Act by passing the Do-Not-Call Implementation Act of 2003. It was subsequently signed into law by President George W. Bush, and on June 27, 2003 regulation development was begun by the government agency which was to be responsible for implementation, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission. Finally, on October 1, 2003 the Act began to be enforced. In essence, it created the National Do Not Call Registry. This list compiled the phone numbers of consumers who did not wish to be called by telemarketers. Any number on this registry was required to be removed from the calling lists of any commercial business. Registration is free, and it lasts for five years and is infinitely renewable. Companies have 31 days from the day a number goes on the list to stop calling a private residence, or face up to $11,000 in fines for each offense.