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Telemarketing blocking service flooded by registrants
A website set up in the US to register telephone numbers of consumers who would prefer not to be approached by telemarketers last month recorded one of the fastest increases for a website ever.
According to Nielsen//Netratings, the website, www.Donotcall.gov, received 3.4 million unique visitors on 27 June, the day of its launch. As of 10:30 a.m. on Wednesday, July 2, 2003, 15.3 million telephone numbers had been logged into the registry.
The site lets American consumers register their telephone numbers for free in a national database. Most telemarketers will be required to synchronize their call lists with the registry every three months. Enforcement begins October 1, 2003.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the US consumer protection agency, manages the National Do Not Call Registry. Congress passed the Telemarketing and Consumer Fraud and Abuse Prevention Act in 1994; one year later, the FTC adopted the Telemarketing Sales Rule (TSR). The TSR prohibits deceptive and abusive telemarketing acts and practices, and protects consumers from late-night telemarketing calls.
Under the TSR:
The Telemarketing Act required the FTC to evaluate the TSR within five years. The FTC began its Rule review in 1999. The decision to create the registry followed a comprehensive, three-year review of the Telemarketing Sales Rule; seven years of enforcement experience; information shared in many public workshops, meetings and briefings; and over 64,000 public comments, most of which favored the creation of a national do not call registry.
President Bush signed the Do Not Call Implementation Act on March 11, 2003, supporting the FTC's decision to establish the National Do Not Call Registry.
Three days following the launch of the site nearly half of all consumers who were aware of the service had already signed up for it, according to a rapid turn-around research firm, InsightExpress, which polled 300 consumers chosen at random. The poll also revealed that more than half of consumers would like to see the Do Not Call service extended to political organisations, religious organisations and charities. Eighty-three percent of respondents said they would also like to see a government-sponsored program to prevent spam, which they regard to be a bigger nuisance than telemarketing calls.
Source: www.ftc.gov
