# Dp telephone companies sell recently connected numbers to telemarketers? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 3, 2008, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dp-telephone-companies-sell-recently-connected-numbers-to-telemarketers/475525 "2008-12-03T17:20:44Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 2\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![elmwood](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/elmwood/32/3060_2.png) [@elmwood](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elmwood)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2008, 5:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dp-telephone-companies-sell-recently-connected-numbers-to-telemarketers/475525/1 "2008-12-03T17:20:44Z")
Just a day after I got a new landline phone connection at my new apartment a few days ago, I started to get telemarketing calls. (Yes, I also signed up immediately on the (United States) national no-call list.) They were using my name – “Is Mister or Mrs. [my last name] home?” – so it certainly wasn’t war-dialing. The only thing I can think of is that AT&T is selling fresh phone numbers to telemarketers. Is that really the case? ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [December 3, 2008, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dp-telephone-companies-sell-recently-connected-numbers-to-telemarketers/475525/2 "2008-12-03T18:53:12Z")
> [@elmwood](#): > > The only thing I can think of is that AT&T is selling fresh phone numbers to telemarketers. Is that really the case? Yes, probably. I know that you can buy a full list of phone numbers (basically the phone book on CD) from the phone company. And not so long ago, my organization was offered a service where we could buy that CD, and get updates sent to us every 2 weeks. I wouldn’t be at all surprised to see that the update option is available more frequently, even daily updates are probably available for a price. The US Post Office offers a similar service for addresses, selling the entire list, and offering to sell frequent updates.