Upwards of 2/3 of the calls I get on my land line are from telemarketers, etc. (needless to say, signing up for the do-not-call list proved useless). It was just last year that I finally got a cell phone and I don’t recall having gotten any telemarketers on it yet. Yet.
I’m thinking of scrapping my land line and having the message give callers my cell number. As time goes on am I likely to start getting telemarketing calls on my cell? That would seriously piss me off. How many do you get?
Within a couple months of acquiring my cell phone, I started getting a lot of phone calls identified as “Restricted” - i.e. the caller was blocking the Caller ID. I have to assume that these were either telemarketers or bill collecters who had somehow gotten my number.
Granted, this was probably my own fault - I “fell for” one of those “Get your free laptop” banner ads on a Web site. I knew better, but I thought, just for fun, that I would work my way through their maze of forms and signups and questionaires and see how long it would take me to actually get to the part about acquiring this free laptop.
I did eventually give up, but by the time I did I had filled in my address and phone number a few times. Within a month my cell phone was ringing several times a day, and all the callers had “Restricted” numbers. There was an increase in spam e-mail too, but I have really good spam filters.
So I just headed over to the National Do Not Call Registry, and the calls stopped within a month.
I’m surprised that you have not had success with the DNC list. Charities and political callers are not bound by those lists, but businesses are. I’d advise you to get the name and number of the businesses calling you, and ask if they’re aware that you’re on the DNC list. You might have to reregister, or complain to your public utility commission to get some satisfaction.
It’s worth noting that any companies that you have current or prior business with are not restricted by the list, and that you have to wait 30 days from registration for it to be in formal effect.