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Background
Has your evening quiet time or dinner been interrupted
by a call from a telemarketer? If so, you’re not alone.
Congress first passed the Telephone Consumer Protection
Act (TCPA) in 1991 in response to consumer concerns about
the growing number of unsolicited telephone marketing
calls to their homes and the increasing use of automated
and prerecorded messages. In response, the Federal
Communications Commission (FCC) adopted rules that require
anyone making a telephone solicitation call to your home
to provide his or her name, the name of the person or
entity on whose behalf the call is being made, and a
telephone number or address at which that person or entity
can be contacted. The original rules also prohibit
telephone solicitation calls to your home before 8 am or
after 9 pm, and require telemarketers to comply with any
do-not-call request you make directly to the caller during
a solicitation call. In June 2003, the FCC supplemented
its original rules implementing the TCPA and established,
together with the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), the
national Do-Not-Call list.
The National Do-Not-Call List
Once you have placed your home phone number or numbers,
including any personal wireless phone numbers, on the
national Do-Not-Call list, callers are prohibited from
making telephone solicitations to those number(s). The
national Do-Not-Call list protects home voice or personal
wireless phone numbers only. While you may be able to
register a business number, your registration will not
make telephone solicitations to that number unlawful.
Similarly, registering either a home or business fax
number will not make sending a fax advertisement to that
number unlawful, but the FCC has separate rules that
prohibit unsolicited fax advertisements under most
circumstances. For more information on the rules for fax
advertisements, see our consumer fact sheet at http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/consumer
facts/unwantedfaxes.html, or visit our Web site at http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/policy
/faxadvertising.html.
A telephone solicitation is a telephone call that acts
as an advertisement. The term does not include calls or
messages placed with your express prior permission, by or
on behalf of a tax-exempt non-profit organization, or from
a person or organization with which you have an
established business relationship (EBR).
An EBR exists if you have made an inquiry, application,
purchase, or transaction regarding products or services
offered by the person or entity involved. Generally, you
may put an end to that relationship by telling the person
or entity not to place any more solicitation calls to your
home. Additionally, the EBR is only in effect for 18
months after your last business transaction or three
months after your last inquiry or application. After these
time periods, calls placed to your home phone number(s) by
that person or entity are considered telephone
solicitations subject to the do-not-call rules.
While registering home phone numbers on the national
Do-Not-Call list prohibits telephone solicitations, this
action does not make prank or harassing calls unlawful.
For problems with such calls, contact local law
enforcement agencies.
You can register your home phone number(s) on the
national Do-Not-Call list by phone or by Internet at no
cost. To add your home phone number to the national
Do-Not-Call list via the Internet, go to http://www.fcc.gov/fcc-bin/bye
?http://www.donotcall.gov/. To register by phone, call
1-888-382-1222 (voice) or 1-866-290-4236 (TTY). You must
call from the phone number you wish to register. For more
information on the national Do-Not-Call list, visit our
Web site at http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/donotcal
l/.
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Your Phone Number from Telemarketing - Click Here -
Company-Specific Do-Not-Call Lists
Whether or not your home phone number is registered on
the national Do-Not-Call list, the FCC requires a person
or entity placing voice telephone solicitations to your
home to maintain a record of your direct request to that
caller not to receive future telephone solicitations from
that person or entity. A record of your do-not-call
request must be maintained for five years. This request
should also stop calls from affiliated entities if you
would reasonably expect them to be included, given the
identification of the caller and the product being
advertised. Unless your home phone number or number(s) is
registered on the national Do-Not-Call list, however, you
must make a separate do-not-call request to each
telemarketer from whom you do not wish to receive calls.
When you receive telephone solicitation calls, clearly
state that you want to be added to the caller’s
do-not-call list. You may want to keep a list of those
persons or businesses that you have asked not to call you.
Tax-exempt non-profit organizations are not required to
keep do-not-call lists.
State Do-Not-Call Lists
Additionally, many states now have statewide
do-not-call lists for residents in their respective
states. Contact your state’s consumer protection office
or public utilities commission to see if the state has
such a list. Contact information for these offices usually
can be found in the blue pages or government section of
your local telephone directory.
Automatic Telephone Dialing Systems and Artificial
or Prerecorded Voice Calls
The FCC has specific rules for automatic telephone
dialing systems, also known as “autodialers.” These
devices can be particularly annoying and generate many
consumer complaints. The rules regarding automatically
dialed and prerecorded calls apply whether or not you have
registered your home phone number(s) on the national
Do-Not-Call list.
Autodialers can produce, store, and dial telephone
numbers using a random or sequential number generator.
They often place artificial (computerized) or prerecorded
voice calls. The use of autodialers, including predictive
dialers, often results in abandoned calls – hang-ups or
“dead air.” Except for emergency calls or calls made
with the prior express consent of the person being called,
autodialers and any artificial or prerecorded voice
messages may not be used to contact numbers assigned to:
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any emergency telephone line;
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the telephone line of any guest or patient room at
a hospital, health care facility, home for the
elderly, or similar establishment;
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a paging service, wireless phone service (including
both voice calls and text messages), or other
commercial mobile radio service; or
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any other service for which the person being called
would be charged for the call.
Calls using artificial or prerecorded voice messages
– including those that do not use autodialers – may
not be made to home phone numbers except for:
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emergency calls needed to ensure the consumer’s
health and safety;
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calls for which you have given prior express
consent;
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non-commercial calls;
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calls that don’t include or introduce any
unsolicited advertisements or constitute telephone
solicitations;
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calls by, or on behalf of, tax-exempt non-profit
organizations; or
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calls from entities with which you have an EBR.
In addition, the FCC’s rules prohibit the use of
autodialers in a way that ties up two or more lines of a
multi-line business at the same time. All artificial or
prerecorded telephone messages must state, at the
beginning, the identity of the business, individual, or
other entity that is responsible for initiating the call.
If a business is responsible for initiating the call, the
name under which the entity is registered to conduct
business with the State Corporation Commission (or
comparable regulatory authority) must be stated. During or
after the message, the caller must give the telephone
number (other than that of the autodialer or prerecorded
message player that placed the call) of the business,
other entity, or individual that made the call so that you
can call during regular business hours to ask that the
company no longer call you. The number provided may not be
a 900 number or any other number for which charges exceed
local or long distance charges.
Autodialers that deliver a recorded message must
release the called party’s telephone line within five
seconds of the time that the calling system receives
notification that the called party’s line has hung up.
In some areas, you could experience a delay before you can
get a dial tone again. Your local telephone company can
tell you if there is a delay in your area.
Telemarketers must ensure that predictive dialers
abandon no more than three percent of all calls placed and
answered by a person. A call will be considered
"abandoned" if it is not transferred to a live
sales agent within two seconds of the recipient's
greeting.
Caller Identification (ID)
If you have caller ID, a telemarketer is required to
transmit or display its phone number and, if available,
its name or the name and phone number of the company for
which it is selling products. The display must include a
phone number that you can call during regular business
hours to ask that the company no longer call you. This
rule applies even if you have an EBR with the company, and
even if you have not registered your home phone number(s)
on the national Do-Not-Call list. Before these rules took
effect, the words “private,” “out of area,” or
“unavailable” might have appeared on the Caller ID
display.
What You Can Do
The FCC can issue warning citations and impose fines
against companies violating or suspected of violating the
do-not-call rules, but does not award individual damages.
If you receive a telephone solicitation that you think
violates any of these rules, you can file a complaint with
the FCC. You can file your complaint using our on-line
complaint Form 1088 found at http://www.fcc.gov/cgb/complain
ts.html; e-mailing fccinfo@fcc.gov;
calling 1-888-CALL-FCC (1-888-225-5322) voice or
1-888-TELL-FCC (1-888-835-5322) TTY; faxing
1-866-418-0232; or writing to:
NEW: Remove
Your Phone Number from Telemarketing - Click Here -
Federal Communications Commission
Consumer & Governmental Affairs Bureau
Consumer Inquiries & Complaints Division
445 12th Street, SW
Washington, DC 20554.
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What to Include in Your
Complaint
The best way to provide all the information
needed for the FCC to process your complaint is
to complete fully the on-line complaint Form
1088. The Form 1088 first asks you to select the
specific telemarketing activity that you are
complaining about, then directs you to a section
of the form that asks specific questions
relevant to that activity. If you do not use the
on-line complaint Form 1088, your complaint, at
a minimum, should indicate:
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your name, address, e-mail address, and
phone number where you can be reached;
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the phone number where you received the
call, and whether this number is on the
national Do-Not-Call list;
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the date and time of the call;
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whether the call advertised or sold any
property, goods, or services;
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any information (including a caller ID
number) to help identify the individual or
company whose property, goods, or services
were being advertised or sold, and whether
any of this information was provided during
the call;
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whether you or anyone else in your
household gave the caller permission to
call;
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whether you have an EBR with the caller
(specifically, whether you or anyone else in
your household made any purchases of
property, goods, or services from the
individual or company that called, or made
any inquiry or filed an application with the
individual or company prior to receiving the
call); and
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whether you or anyone in your household
previously asked the caller or individual or
company whose property, goods, or services
are being advertised or sold NOT to
call, and when you made the request.
REMEMBER: You can
remove your phone number from the EBR and
Co-Registration Databases by visiting:
www.RemovePhoneNumber.com
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Some states permit you to file law suits in state court
against persons or entities violating the do-not-call
rules. You may be awarded $500 in damages or actual
monetary loss, whichever is greater. The amount may be
tripled if you are able to show that the caller violated
the rules willfully and knowingly. Filing a complaint with
the FCC does not prevent you from also bringing a suit in
state court.
States also can bring a civil law suit against any
person or entity that engages in a pattern or practice of
violating the TCPA or FCC rules. You can contact your
state Attorney General’s office or consumer protection
agency with particular complaints, or to encourage such
suits.
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