Tired of Unwanted Sales Phone Calls?

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Catherine J. Frompovich
Activist Post

Don’t you just ‘love’ those annoying phone calls during the dinner hour when you have your hands immersed in food preparation? Or, even those telemarketers who have the chutzpah to leave a recorded message for you on your voice mail?

Well, there is a way that readers can stop such annoying phone calls, even though it may take up to a month. However, it definitely is worth the effort. Here’s how to go about stopping unwanted sales phone calls.

The Federal Trade Commission Consumer Information website offers a couple of ways to stop landline and mobile (cell) phone numbers from being accessed by what many folks consider nuisance calls.

Here’s how, according to the Do Not Call Registry 

Online: register at www.donotcall.gov 

If you register online, you will receive a confirmation email from donotcall.gov. You must click on the link in the email within 72 hours after you get it for your registration to be effective, according to FTC’s website instructions. 

Via telephone: 1-888-382-1222 

Hearing-impaired phone line (TTY): 1-866-290-4236 

Note, “Most telemarketing calls will stop once your number has been on the Registry for 31 days. You can verify that your number is on the Registry by checking the website or calling the toll-free number. Your number will stay on the Registry unless you decide to remove it, or you give up the number.”

If you keep receiving telemarketing calls after 31 days, you may want to file a complaint at https://complaints.donotcall.gov/complaint/complaintcheck.aspx?panel=2 . Furthermore, if by chance you happen to answer an unwanted call, do what I do: politely tell them “I request you take my number off your call list.” They have to honor that request. Besides, they can be fined for return calls to you, if you report them.

Here’s how to report phone scams https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0076-phone-scams and to check out possible charity scams https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/features/feature-0011-charity-scams.

Telemarketers, who make sales pitches via text messages for which the receiving phone number is charged thereby running up monthly charges for unsuspecting consumers, are business opportunities. See this http://www.txt180.com/ for how it’s done.

However, effective October 16, 2013 telemarketing laws changed, according to Sergei Lemberg of Lemberg and Associates: “It used to be that by virtue of giving [the telemarketers] your number, that was enough to get robo-dialed. Now telemarketers need specific consent.” [1]

Perhaps, it would be helpful to read “Telemarketing laws change tomorrow: Here’s what you need to know.”

Have you checked your monthly phone bills recently? 

Catherine J Frompovich (website) is a retired natural nutritionist who earned advanced degrees in Nutrition and Holistic Health Sciences, Certification in Orthomolecular Theory and Practice plus Paralegal Studies. Her work has been published in national and airline magazines since the early 1980s. Catherine authored numerous books on health issues along with co-authoring papers and monographs with physicians, nurses, and holistic healthcare professionals. She has been a consumer healthcare researcher 35 years and counting.

Two of Catherine’s more recent books on Amazon.com are Our Chemical Lives And The Hijacking Of Our DNA, A Probe Into What’s Probably Making Us Sick (2009) and Lord, How Can I Make It Through Grieving My Loss, An Inspirational Guide Through the Grieving Process (2008).