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How do I register my phone number with the Do Not Call registry?

I can't sit down for dinner without having my phone ring a half-dozen times with stupid junk calls. From carpet to refinancing my mortgage, holiday discounts to drugs, if someone's trying to sell it via telemarketer, they seem to think I'm a good target. How can I stop these calls?

Dave's Answer:

You need to learn about the Federal Trade Commission and its National Do Not Call Registry! By adding your phone number (or numbers!) to that database, you should greatly reduce or hopefully completely eliminate these annoying calls.

You can call them from your own phone (the number is 888-382-1222) or you can just pop over to their Web site and enter all your numbers at once. I did the latter, here: DoNotCall.gov/register.

Once you go there and enter your phone numbers, you'll then get an email confirmation that you must read; within it is a link you need to click. The message looks like this:

"Click on the link to complete your request to register your phone number with the last four digits 0001 on the National Do Not Call Registry. Important: You must respond to this email by clicking the link within 72 hours for your registration to be successful.

"Once you have registered, your phone number registration will be effective for 5 years. It will be illegal for most telemarketers to call you, and you will be able to file a complaint if a telemarketer does call you. The website www.donotcall.gov provides information about filing a complaint. Important: After you click on the link, print the web page and keep it for your records.

"Troubleshooting: If you don't get a "Registration Complete" message after clicking on the link, or the link does not work, use your "cut" and "paste" functions to insert the entire link in the email into the "Address" line on your Web browser. Cut and paste the entire link - it's long. Do not re-type it."

I received this message within two or three minutes of registering on the site and in less than five minutes total I'd registered my phone numbers. I expect you can do the same.

And then, finally, you can enjoy your dinner. :-)

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Categorized: d) None of the Above (Article 7569)
Tagged: junk calls, spam, telemarketing
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Comments

Since the Do Not Call (DNC) registry is only for five years, people who registered in 2002 (when the DNC registry was developed) are "falling off" the DNC list need to redo their request. The 5 years limit was a compromise between Congress and the Telemarketers. So, if you have done this in the past, you will have to renew it every 5 years.

Also, charities and political parties are exempt from the DNC list.

Posted by: Sandy at September 9, 2007 3:18 PM

Also, don't expect this to be a cure for all your telemarketing calls. As I recall, they have 31 days to remove your number from their lists.

Also, despite it being illegal, many telemarketers simply ignore the DNC list. While it has cut back on probably >90% of the calls we used to get, we still get the occasional telemarketer. However, they are now pre-recorded messages (also illegal AFAIK) with either blocked caller ID (illegal, at least in NY) or faked caller ID information (should be illegal if it's not).

In addition to reporting such violations, you should also check out the "Who Called Us" website to see who else got such calls. http://www.whocalled.us

Posted by: Ken at September 10, 2007 9:39 AM

I have a lot to say, but ...

I have a lot to say, and questions of my own for that matter, but most of all I'd like to say thank you for all your efforts on this Web site by buying you a chai!

I do have a comment, now that you mention it!