Telemarketers and Cell Phones?

jjshoe asks: "I have received one bumbling voice mail from a woman who seemed very confused as to why I wasn't there, like her auto dialer transfered her call to my cellphone in time for my voice mail, one missed call, and one in which I actually talked to the woman. My concern is that this all costs me minutes, which of course equals money. What laws are out there for me? What bills are out there waiting to head their way towards becoming laws? What can I do to be compensated for time? After I screamed at the tele-marketer lady she said she would mark me as a wrong number, but I still don't believe this is enough." Considering most tele-marketers use auto-dialers, would it be so hard to grab the definitive list of area-code/extensions that are exclusively used for cellular phones and just apply that to their dial-out lists?

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette's website was the only site I could find that had any information on cellphones and solicitation.

Note the first question from 'JOHN PUHATCH':

Q: Regarding the sole use of wireless phones as an alternative to a land line connection, as I have done for nearly two years: You stated that tele-marketers do not call wireless phones. If only that were the case. Tele-marketing agencies have regularly contacted me on my cell phone concerning everything from vacation homes to long-distance service. My assumption is that these agencies secure my cell phone number by buying information from the plethora of forms and applications that require home telephone numbers but leave no place for a cell phone.

And the answer basically amounts to, although we do have some protections, we can still be screwed:

'A: [...]In short, John, you lost your chance at a telemarketing-free life when you filled out those forms with your phone number. May others learn from your mistake.'

Does anyone have any advice on things I can do to get these tele-marketers to stop calling on my cellphone?"

Most land-based phone companies allow anonymous-call blocks these days. Are there cellular phone companies doing anything similar?

Don't answer

[sllort]

My cell phone is my only phone. When you have "home phone" as a required field on most order forms, you have to give out something. Then, later, someone calls to sell you a hotel vacation, or Viagra. You can tell them it's your cell phone, and ask them where you can bill them for your minutes, but they just hang up on you.

These days, I just don't answer blocked ID's, and my voicemail says so. You need a valid caller ID to call me. Yes, it's pathetic and sub-optimal, but it's the system our lawmakers have left us with. Pay to be harassed, or become unavailable.

Of course, I always buy the Viagra, so it's not that bad a deal.

MO no call

[Maledictus]

The Missouri no call list is fantastic. I've extolled its virtues to many of my friends and neighbors. Since both of my land lines (a personal line and a fax line that SWBT doesn't know is a business line...heheh...) are on the attorney general's list, I've recieved very few telemarketing calls. And the ones I've received were probably from companies that are exempt - credit card companies, for example.

Plus, Missouri prosecutes violators. Gotta love that.

However, as far as I know, the Missouri law does not cover cell phones. In fact, we tried to put our cell on the list, the no-call folks called back and said that since it was a cell, it couldn't be on the list. But - as other posters have pointed out - I believe that in my area cell phones are automatically off of call lists anyway. And in the case of my specific area, the *area* *code* may be the same as land lines, but the *exchange* (that second set of 3 numbers) is different for cells. Thus marking cell numbers and putting them out of bounds for telemarketers.

We've not recieved one solitary telemarketing call on our cell.

But as always, milage varies.

Call me, please!

[saberwolf]

I love getting marketing calls on my cellphone. Possibly because we don't pay for incoming calls in the UK and possibly because I find it an intellectual challenge to keep them on the phone for as long as possible (in the knowledge that it's probably costing them 15p/minute to talk to me).

Yes, I have a lot of time on my hands. ;-)

Why on earth do Americans pay to receive phone calls?

Take them to court and Make $500!

[Anonymous Coward]

Check out http://www.stopjunkcalls.com/script.htm [stopjunkcalls.com] and they will give you the run down of what your supposed to do. Im sure that after you have been awarded a couple thousand from various telemarketers, the rest will probably start to get the idea. ;)

A UK perspective

[caveman]

A couple of points from the UK.

Over on this side of the big pond, the cost of calling mobile telephones is still orders of magnitude higher than making national or local calls, and in some instances comparable (or even more expensive, if you use some of the specialist long-distance carriers) to making international calls. Example: Calls to mobiles are charged at anywhere from 18.90 to 26.05 pence per minute including tax during the daytime. Compare this to international rate calls to the USA at 14.00 and Australia at 22.00 pence per minute. (Source: BT [bt.com] price list). The cost alone is usually sufficient to put people of making calls to mobiles. SMS (text messaging) spam is become more popular though.

The UK Direct Marketing Association, which is the self regulatory body for direct marketeers in the UK run a scheme called the Telephone Preference Service [tpsonline.org.uk] or 'TPS'. From personal experience, I have found this scheme to be particularly effective against junk callers.

The same bunch also run a postal-mail and fax opt-out service, which is apparently also fairly successful, and an Email service, which I'm somewhat sceptical about (not giving my addressesout anyway, I shouldn't be on their lists). (and most of my spam comes from the USA anyhow) Under the Telecommunications (Data Protection and Privacy Regulations) 1999 [hmso.gov.uk] it is an offence for any company engaged in direct marketing to call numbers listed on the TPS. Those who do can be 'shopped' straight away on the TPS site. One difference I noticed with the USA version of the TPS [dmaconsumers.org] is that in the USA, you can still be called by local traders, charities and religious groups, AND your number only registers for five years. In the UK, local traders, charities and religious groups are included in the act.

Re:Don't answer

[1010011010]

The difference is that, cell phones are billed by the minute, and land lines are fixed-cost. You don't pay more to get a marketing call at home, but you do pay more to get one on a cell phone.

I would bill them for the minutes. If they refuse to identify themselves, report them immediately to your provider for making harassing calls, and demand to know who it was so that you can (1) bill them and (2) block them.

Another alternative: never answer your phone unless you recognize the number. Everyone else cal leave a message in your voicemail and get a call back.

I would like to see a PGP-type authentication system in phones, where you can elect to have people you know ring the phone and others not. You give a key or token to people you want to be able to call you, that uniquely identifies them to you. Their phone signals your phone with thay key.

I wouldn't mind seeing a law requiring caller-id on telemarketing calls, and accompanying hardware to automatically clock telemarketing calls. The phone companies can log EVERY call, so if there was a special code I could dial after getting an unwanted call -- *99 or something -- and the phone company logs it as such, that would be good, as well. I'd like to get a list of companies flagged on my bill each month.

Re:Could Be Better

[kuroth]

True Story:

In 1995, I was fresh out of college with a relatively useless liberal arts degree.

A friend of mine had a little web company, and he was giving me piecemeal work - html, content sorting, stuff like that - after finding out that I was pretty comfortable with computers and learned things quickly.

Still, I was poor. Canned-beans-three-meals-a-day poor.

We (a roomate and I) moved into a new apartment a few months later. Our new phone number apparently belonged to an IT consultant before it came into our possession. We used to get five or six calls a week from headhunters looking to hire him for various jobs.

One day, I started talking to one of the headhunters. Ten minutes later, I had an interview for a $25 an hour job, despite my lackluster qualifications and limited experience. A week later, I was hired.

In the seven years since then, I've learned a lot more, worked a lot of contracting gigs, and eventually started my own consulting company. We're not huge, just a few guys, but we make a decent living and do a vast majority of our work in bath robes. :)

See, telemarketers aren't always bad.

Kuroth

What I don't understand is...

[BrokenHalo]

Why you guys in the US use the same types of telephone numbers for cell and land-line phones. In every country I've lived in, a mobile number is distinctly different (usually more digits), and the prefixes are usually recognisable. Thus, in the UK or here in Australia for instance the telemarketer has to be aware that a mobile number is being called (and be prepared to wear the cost).

Dirty phone call?

[SailFly]

I remember something I heard about five years ago (I think in Colorado) where a guy started recording all his calls from telemarketers. He would guide the calls into a perverted personal quest with explicit probing questions like "are you wearing any underwear...what color...", and as the caller would respond, the questions became more intense.

He took his favorite top 10 messages, and made a CD and sold them as a joke album in local stores. Some local radio stations picked up copies and were playing them during the morning rush-hour.

As I recall, he was able to disclose the "call was being recorded" and was clear that "the caller could hang up if they wish". I guess this was enough to cover himeself legally. Some of the calls really got pretty detailed and disgusting...until the unfortunate caller couldn't stand any more and eventually hung up.

Anyone heard of this?