I would have expected them to take some more proactive measures to prosecute - as in putting up some "bait" numbers and getting in contact with the callers on the premise of buying their product.
OTOH, with the calls I've received, there was no obvious way to do that - and I am fearful of pushing too far and falling into some sort of BS "established business relationship" trap.
Sometimes I wonder if they're not selling anything - just honing their list for sale to others by seeing how many hoops the target is willing to jump through (e.g. "Press 1 for this, press 2 for that....")
Laws are in place. The problem is pinning the call on somebody.
My line has been, "Oh, hang on just a second, I have to turn something off on the stove here", then set the phone down and continue with whatever I was doing.
But I'd suspect that major telemarketers on onto this and instantly terminate the call when they hear it.
I think the original source of telephone numbers is header information from credit reports, not illegal to sell even if credit transactions themselves have some minor privacy under federal law.
Then once the information is sold to one list consolidator, it gets resold to other list consolidator and never goes away.
I have a number that had been someone's business number several years ago, which is how all the callers who try to sell services to that business probably claim to get out of checking the Do Not Call list.
It's a good idea, Pete. Maybe you should market it. Or maybe you could develop it even further.
I used to use a thing called the 'Phone Butler'. I got it just before they implemented the DNC registry.
It was great. It charged up on the ringer current when the telemarketer would call in (no battery to replace). You just plugged it into your line like an answering set.
You'd answer and as soon as you realized it was a telemarketer calling you hit the star ('*') button on your touch tone pad and it would come online.
It had a male, British voice that identified itself as the 'Phone Butler' saying that he had been instructed to 'politely decline your inquiry and to ask you to please put this number on their Do Not Call list'.
Then it would hang up (no discussion or argument).
And that was something that a telemarketer can't handle. Which is why it was so funny.
I believe I have one stashed away in one of my electronics boxes (electronics I haven't used in a while).
But I don't need it now since it is unusual for me to get a telemarketing call more than once or twice per year. Then I just give them the 'Put me on your do not call list', let them acknowledge that, and then I hang up.
End of story. But others aren't quite as assertive or as bold as I am. That's where this device would be most useful.
Here's a URL to where you can buy one:
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I remember reading about someone who was running a Phone Butler on his line. The phone rang, he answered, the pitch began, he pressed '*' and hung up.
A few minutes later, the phone rang again. It was the telemarketer.
The man said, "Didn't you get the message?". He said he did and he wasn't calling back to sell him anything.
He said he wanted to find out where he could buy a Phone Butler as a present for his wife and hoped the man would tell him.
Hmm.. my VoIP calls that "digital receptionist" and I could do that too. One of the routing options is "echo test", which echos back to the caller anything they say (I think it's for "ping testing"). That might be amusing. But I use the line for my business too, so I had best keep the amusing touches as fantasy. I don't actually get enough spam calls to warrant the effort, anyhow. It does seem like blacklisting particular calling numbers works fairly well (or perhaps when they get the "not in service" recording they remove my number from their dialer list).
The FCC handed this issue off to the FTC a long time ago. Congress provided the capability for aggrieved individuals to sue violators in federal court. (Tracking them down then hiring competent counsel to represent you in federal court costs a fortune.) All the FTC does is gather statistics and advise you of your right to file a lawsuit, if you are so inclined.
No one, but no one cares about this issue. It was originally raised strictly to appease consumer groups. Briefly, California tried to do something about the issue on intrastate calls. It didn't take long for the telemarketers to switch to interstate calls. Plus, as you probably know, California has run out of money to work such issues. What little money is flowing in (as businesses continue to leave the state en masse) is to maintain state employee Cadillac salaries and Rolls Royce pension plans.
I'd worry that eventually I'd encounter one of the extra-vindictive ones who either dialed my number himself or can retrieve it from the dialer and find some way to submit it to a system (or multiple systems) that will call it at inconvenient times. Telecom equipment question: surely there are at least some predictive dialers that can provide the agent with the called number? They'd need that to comply with do-not-call requests, no?
The problem I have with nuisance calls is that they're perfectly legal. It's very rare that I get an illegal call trying to sell me something or a call to my cell phone (though it has happened a few times.)
Rather, I am flooded with survey calls, charity soliticitations, and political calls. Up to and including election day calls come hourly. All of these are protected under US law.
I am not holding for breath for political calls to be made illegal.
Like it or not, _every_ government agency does that. It is a fact of life that they do -not- have 'unlimited' funding, to pursue every reported 'possible violation'.
The Federal courts _have_ ruled on the legality of such actions. Courts have said, in so many words, that government agencies do _NOT_ have a 'duty' to enforce _every_ violation -- that they *do* have the right/ authority/whatever to decide _which_cases_ they will pursue. The. U.S. Supreme Court has affirmed, so it _is_ the 'law of the land'.
FACT: You can sue in _any_ "court of competent jurisdiction". Any _local_ court with 'jurisdiction' over the calling party -- i.e., a court where that business is located -- CAN and WILL hear the case.
One can even file in 'small claims'.
FALSE TO FACT. They _do_ go after 'egregious' violators. For 'economic' reasons (i.e., they don't have _funding_ for serious research to identify those who conceal their identity), these tend to be only the 'low hanging fruit' -- the mass violators that are easily identifiable.
A friend of mine was cheated out of $50 by mail fraud. (other buyers were cheated, too.) Very clear case and the guilty party was clearly known. The postal inspectors said the case was too small for them to bother with and nothing was done.
Predictive dialers (at least when making their initial hangup call) never connect the callee to a live person, because that way (in their opinion) they're not required to comply with DNC requests. They're only obligated (in their opinion) if you make the request to a live human being, so if they can make it impossible for you to do that, it's your problem.
I wish I could sic the Navy Seals on all the bozos who do this to me....
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