Better Business Bureau of Southern Arizona receives numerous calls from people who ask, “Why are so many companies calling me? How did they get my name and number?” The surprising answer is they gave it to them.

Many times when a consumer signs up for a drawing, a magazine subscription, or anything where a phone number is requested their phone number might be sold to a third party for use by telemarketers. The bottom line is consumers should be careful who you give your name and phone number to.

If you pay for a magazine subscription, tell the magazine company to not share your information with other companies. If you don’t tell them not to, you will receive unwanted calls and mailings.

What about the Do Not Call Registry for cell phones? There is not a separate registry.

The Federal Trade Commission says:

Federal regulations already prohibit most telemarketing targeted to cell phones. The truth about cell phones and the Do Not Call Registry is:  The government is not releasing cell phone numbers to telemarketers. There is no deadline for registering a cell phone number on the Do Not Call Registry… There is only one Do Not Call Registry, operated by the Federal Trade Commission, with information available at www.donotcall.gov or (888) 382-1222. There is no separate registry for cell phones.

Telemarketers/sellers are required to search the registry once every 31 days and drop from their call lists the phone number of consumers who are registered.

Consumers can register up to three phone numbers, including your cell phone. If they receive an unwanted call, consumers can tell them not to call back. If the telemarketer keeps calling back, file a complaint with the Do Not Call Registry through the FTC.

Unfortunately, political campaign offices can still call. The only way to handle them is to have caller ID and not answer those calls. Charities can also call but not third-party telemarketers for the charities.
Some companies will entice you with drawings for prizes — then sell your name and number. Keep off those lists.

This entry was posted on Friday, June 24th, 2011 at 10:08 am and is filed under alert, Life, scam, Tips. Tags for this post: BBB, Better Business Bureau, Better Business Bureau of Southern Arizona, Do Not Call List, FTC, phone call, Telemarketing, Tucson, unwanted phone calls. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.