The National Do-Not-Call Registry aims to protect consumers from unwanted phone solicitations. These calls typically rank among the top consumer com...
The National Do-Not-Call Registry aims to protect consumers from unwanted phone solicitations. These calls typically rank among the top consumer complaints to the FCC. While the registry has been around for over a decade, many still don’t entirely understand how it works or what it can do.
That includes consumers, of course, as well as businesses, many of which want to comply and seek to understand the scope and nuances of the regulations.
Although the idea behind the Do-Not-Call Registry, also referred to as the Do-Not-Call List, is simple enough, it took years to come to fruition.
Consistent consumer complaints spurred Congress to sign the Telephone Consumer Protection ACT (TCPA) in 1991. The TCPA outlined new restrictions on sales calls and the use of automated dialers and voicemail recordings. It also suggested the creation of a database of consumer phone numbers that shouldn’t receive unsolicited sales calls.
While the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) adopted the TCPA guidelines, they chose not to move forward with the establishment of the phone number database.
That changed on June 27, 2003, when the FTC finally set up the Do-Not-Call Registry. Consumers could now register their phone number, and after 31 days unsolicited calls to that number were prohibited and punishable with a fine.
Within just 4 days, over 10 million phone numbers had been registered. By the registry’s seventh birthday (2010) that number had topped 200 million.
It’s important to understand what types of calls the registry prohibits.
The Do-Not-Call Registry applies to 1) unsolicited 2) sales calls to 3) personal phone numbers.
1) Let’s first cover the “unsolicited” aspect.
If you and the company have an “existing relationship”, a call is not considered unsolicited. This relationship exists if you have purchased, rented, or leased the businesses goods or services, or if any other financial transaction has taken place in the last 18 months. Or, if you have requested information, a price quote, or submitted an application in the last 3 months.
However, once you request that a company stop calling you, they are required to stop.
2) The next distinction is that the call must be a “sales” call. The following types of calls are not considered sales calls, and are therefore still allowed even if your number is on the registry:
3) Finally, prohibited calls only apply to personal/residential phone numbers.
Even though you can register a business phone number on the Do-Not-Call Registry, this doesn’t prohibit unsolicited sales calls. If you have a business, you should keep this in mind before you use the same phone number for personal and business use.
HOW TO SIGN UP – ONLINE OR BY PHONE
Signing up for the National Do-Not-Call Registry is quick and easy.
To sign up online, go to https://www.donotcall.gov/ and proceed through the registration process. The FTC will ask for your email address, however, it is only used for confirmation and is not stored or associated with your phone number.
To sign up by phone, call 1-888-382-1222. With this method, there’s no confirmation email, but you need to call from the phone number you wish to register.
Your phone number should be registered the following day, and within 31 days most sales calls should cease.
Remember that the registry only prohibits certain kinds of calls.
If you believe you are still receiving prohibited calls, start by confirming that your number is registered.
The FTC recommends not interacting with illegal sales calls or robocalls.
Both will likely lead to more calls as you’ve verified that you have a working number. Instead, just hang up and file a complaint.
If you get repeated calls from the same phone number, you may be able to set up call blocking with your provider. Be sure to check if there is a fee for this service.
The process for filing a complaint about a sales call is similar to registering your number.
You can go to https://www.donotcall.gov/ and click the “Report it to the FTC” link. After that, you just provide some basic information on the illegal call.
Alternatively, you can call 1-888-382-1222.
What’s convenient about the Do-Not-Call Registry is that phone numbers in the database never expire. Once you register, you’re good to go.
The exception is for phone numbers that get disconnected. Once a number’s disconnected and given to a new person, it’s automatically taken off the registry.
If you’re in a situation where your number got disconnected and reconnected, there’s a chance it could get removed. You can double-check on https://www.donotcall.gov/ or by calling 1-888-382-1222, and then re-register if you need to.
Signing up for the registry is certainly better than nothing. Most legitimate companies in the United States will check the registry and avoid your number if it’s listed there. In addition to understanding that people who don’t wish to be called are unlikely to be very good prospects, they also don’t want to expose themselves to potentially hefty fines – which can exceed $40,000 per offense
Unfortunately, some technology has made it simple and cheap for scammers – oftentimes outside of the US – to blast out robocalls with pre-recorded messages. Often they do so with a fake caller ID (also known as Caller ID spoofing).
You can report these calls, and the FTC does its best to shut down these and other offending organizations, but it’s not easy.
The FTC generally gets about 250,000 to 300,000 complaints monthly. Since phone companies don’t hang on to call records forever, the FTC needs to get to a complaint before the phone company gets rid of that specific call data. And with fake caller IDs, it can take five or more subpoenas to find out what company was behind the call.
That said, the FTC hosts competitions with monetary prizes to help drive robocall killing innovations. Companies including Apple and Google have teamed up as part of an FCC task force to help fight the problem as well. So progress is being made.
Bottom line? The Do-Not-Call Registry will stop plenty of calls you don’t want from coming your way. But it’s not a magic bullet or an infallible solution.
It’s important for businesses to comply with Do-Not-Call regulations in order to avoid fines, angry customers, and bad publicity.
Here are some steps and precautions companies should take:
The National Do-Not-Call Registry is a useful tool to help prevent unsolicited sales calls. While it’s not perfect, it only takes a couple minutes to sign up, and then you can report companies that call you without your permission.
To recap, here’s what you need to know about the Do-Not-Call Registry:
Doug Spak joined Espresso Agent as a Content Marketing Specialist in 2016. Doug brings nearly four decades of experience as a copywriter, blogger, and screenwriter to his role with Espresso. Since joining our team, Doug has actively updated website content, published more than 300 blogs, and created countless social media posts.
.svg)
.svg)
INTRODUCTION The benefits of real estate prospecting. Prospecting is an oft-discussed topic among real estate agents. What exactly is prospecting? I...
Top-producing real estate agents have learned how to master real estate prospecting scripts to control every prospecting call's flow, tone, and direct...
Those of you in the real estate profession have chosen the field for differing reasons. Some of you love the hyper-competitive nature of our industry....
