Telemarketing Laws

A long time ago, telemarketing was a novel idea. The suggestion of people calling you up at home to sell you something was unheard of, but it rapidly became very lucrative. Suddenly telemarketing companies came up everywhere. It was unsafe to answer your phone. To sugar coat it, people were starting to get annoyed.

The congress and the telemarketing laws as we know them today rescued the harassed callers.

Congress got into the act in 1991. They passed an act conceding customers definite rights to protect themselves against these infuriating telemarketing calls (no offense the industry). Their genius was in writing an anti-telemarketing script for consumers to use when receiving a call they supposed was a telemarketer. They would ask questions like, "Are you calling to sell me something?" "Can you tell me your full name?" "Can you tell me the company’s name?" "Do they have a do not call list?" "Can you put me on that list?" If they answer negative to any of these questions, then you can legally sue them.

Congress was taking a proactive role against telemarketing calls. Apart from this script, they enforced telemarketing laws. Regrettably, congress did not control the telephones, which was an FCC matter. So the congress went to the FCC and asked their assistance, giving the FCC their proposal to set up a national database of telephone numbers of all consumers who did not wish to be called by telemarketers.

Unsurprisingly, by dropping the number of calls made, meant less money for the phone companies and this was not in the FCC's best interests as unhappy phone companies meant an unhappy FCC. Consequently, the FCC proposed a more "cost efficient" series of "company do not call lists", by which the consumer called up the company which he did not want to be bothered by. So, either you had to call the company beforehand, or you had to wait for their call first. This was FCC’s grand solution liked only by the telemarketers and the FCC.

This was short lived. Ten years later, the FTC did what the FCC wouldn't do. Due to the crash in long distance rates, overseas telemarketers called frequently, many of which were absolute scams. This is when the FTC stepped in with telemarketing laws.

Chiefly, the FTC put some severe restrictions on calls coming in from automated machines. No longer could these whole calls be mechanized. An actual operator had to enter and if the consumer wished, he could ask the operator numerous questions and be put on a do not call list which would take care of calls for all companies, not just the one calling. If the company failed this, they were held answerable.

You can see these telemarketing laws online on the FTC website. You can register to be placed on the do not call list. Telemarketing companies have to pay a fee to get this list and if you are on it, they must not call you or be subject to heavy fines.