We've all of a sudden been getting a rash of phone solicitors that claim to be "calling in response to information you requested on the internet".
I don't think so! The last thing I do is put my unlisted(supposedly) phone number on someones web site and say "yeah, give me a call".
Is this their new tactic to try and prevent me from claiming that they are making random phones solicitations? We aren't on that "Don't call" list yet, but will be soon. But this seems to be their new loop-hole to get around it.

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First of all, you've probably got to start telling each caller to put you on their Don't Call list as they call to bug you (but you knew that, sorry). [i don't know how that interacts with the new national one, though.]

But anyhow, if you're ever on a telespammer's Don't Call list and they call you, I'm not sure that it matters what they say. If they lied, they lied. You should still get a chance to nail them in court.

As the latest gimmick, maybe they found that all the "Re:" spams were paying off so they started doing it with telespamming too?

Meanwhile, _we_ pay extra in order to not be bothered by these people. The phone companies can then sell the telespammers some tools to get around our stuff, so they get to really make out with this whole thing.

I suppose all we can do is vent. If it ever came to a vote, how many people would vote "continue with current telemarketing practices" over "make telemarketing illegal?" Yet there's an effective telemarketing lobby with seemingly no inidividual constituency. I'm not big on guns but at least the NRA has people behind it.

Someone should organize a national hang up on telemarketers month. For 30 days, everyone hangs up on a type of phone solicitation.

Sixto
95 S420
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We have privecy manager. The unknown caller would have to say who they are and we can decide whether or not to accept the calls. The downside of it is that whoever my family or freind who have caller ID block would have to do the same, drive them crazy. LOL

Here's what I do:

When shopping in a store, unless an item is very expensive and important, if a merchant/other requests my telephone number I don't argue, I give it to them.

But what I do is merely add one to the last digit! Give them a wrong number and they'll never call!

I've only gotten one telemarketing call in nearly three years. (I no longer use a land-line either, if that makes a difference.)

I'm on the no-call list here in Wisconsin, it's cut it down close to, but not quite, 100%.

I know when I'm getting a solicitation call by the "unknown number" on the caller ID. I will usually answer, make sure for some odd reason it's not someone I actually WANT to talk to (it never is), then cut them off by saying "hey, I'm kinda busy right now, I'll call you right back", then hang up. I always wonder if the dolt realizes I don't have their number to call them back with.

Gilly

For Canadians, you can sign up for the "CMA's Do Not Contact Service"...and apparently, the majority of calls will stop after 3 months...I gave it a try...

CMA Do Not Contact Services

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That may not always be the case. When one of my best clients, Reuters Television, calls to see if I'm available for a program, the number on my phone reads, "unknown caller". I asked why and she said that since she's in an office with a few hundred other phone lines, they all get routed through the same source, or something, so they come up as "unknown".

So, at least for me, I always answer those calls to. To not do so would cost me thousands of dollars!

When sharing a house with other guys a few years back, I and another housemate who had night schedules would have to field numerous telemarketing calls for a third housemate. It got irritating after a while, to say the least.

The best way we dealt with the calls was this:

When the caller would ask for the housemate, George, who wasn't at home, we would act as if he were and scream, "George, you've got a call!!!", loud enough for the telemarketer to hear. We'd then place the phone down on the counter and wait about three minutes. Then, pick up the phone and ask the telemarketer if he had picked up yet. Of course, the answer was "no". So we'd repeat the process all over again.

After about the third time, they'd get the message! Feels good to waste their time for a change!!

I also pulled the "He's dead" answer a few times. It's great to hear them get all flustered on the other side!!!

Right, I answer it in case it is some business or some situation like that which I may want to talk to, but never has been yet.

Gilly

DuckMuck, thanks for the link. I've been getting calls where my caller ID shows "Nova Scotia call" or " New Brunswick call" that I ignore. I'm sure it's telemarketers. So even though I'm in the States, I put my name on the Canadian list. Who knows, maybe it'll be legal for telemarketers to start calling us from Canada after October!

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Tell them solicitators to get benticated.

I finally enrolled onto the national do not call list last week (www.donotcall.gov) and unwanted calls have vanished!

Those few that disregard the list still use the tried-and-true rules of engagement...telemarketers are instructed not to respond to the first "Hello", but will start their dialog on the second one. So if I see an "unknown number" on the caller ID and decide to pick up the receiver, I say "Hello" only once. If there is silence, I hang up!

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I wonder what the reasoning is behind that?

Gilly

After reading your post, I went back and checked the site, and you are right! They do list "state" in the addresses...so potentially, Americans could sign up too and be taken off the list of telephone solicitors who call down to the States from Canada...I signed up I think about a month ago...I am still getting calls ever so often...but it seems to be getting less (I think it is a placebo effect though)...anyhow, hopefully, in 3 months or so...they will stop almost completely...which would be great...

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