Do Not Call

[ltfire]

I originally signed on to the ‘Do Not Call’ list some years ago, and it has been a total success as far as I’m concerned. It took about a month, and my phone went silent. No more annoying sales calls at dinner time, no more annoying calls, ever.
My question. How do the people who make these calls know you are on the list?

National Do Not Call Registry

[Duckster]

How will the National Do Not Call Registry work?

Starting January 1, 2005, telemarketers and sellers will be required to search the registry at least once every 31 days and drop from their call lists the phone numbers of consumers who have registered. Through December 31, 2004, telemarketers will have to update their lists every three months. The dedicated, fully automated and secure Web site at www.telemarketing.donotcall.gov will provide this information to telemarketers and sellers.

When an organization accesses the system for the first time, it will have to create a profile and provide some identifying information, such as organization name and address, authorized representative, and the representative’s telephone number and email address. If an organization is accessing the registry on behalf of a client-seller, the organization may need to identify the client (or clients).

The only consumer information organizations will be able to access from the national registry is a registrant’s telephone number. Consumers’ phone numbers will be sorted and available by area code. Each organization accessing the registry data will be required to pay an annual fee based on the number of area codes the company accesses.

On subsequent visits to www.telemarketing.donotcall.gov, organizations will be able to download either a complete updated list of numbers from their selected area codes or a more limited list that shows additions or deletions since the last download.

A consumer who receives a telemarketing call despite being on the registry will be able to file a complaint with the FTC, either online or by calling a toll-free number. Violators could be fined up to $11,000 per incident.

Source: National Do Not Call Registry

[Shagnasty]

In real terms, it means that IT has to build a database interface with the call center software and cross-reference it with the do not call file. It isn’t especially difficult but it is expensive and time-consuming and the stakes are high. Modern call center software is pretty sophisticated. It blasts a bunch of calls out to a population and then passes off the ones that are answered by a person to a bank of telemarketer operators that are standing by to take a call. Matching calls to operators happens very quickly and dynamically to make things as cheap and efficient as possible.

The Do Not Call file just adds a step in which the numbers on the list do not get called by the system. There are still some smaller operations around that do things by hand. I have no idea how they comply.