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Do Not Call List
THE SEEMINGLY simple service is at the center of a perplexing saga involving every branch of government. In the latest twist, federal officials scrambled a day before enforcement was to start to rework a system that handles complaints about telemarketers.For now, officials are directing consumers who registered phone numbers on the list to send complaints to the Federal Communications Commission by visiting its Web site or calling 1-888-225-5322.The list contains more than 50 million home and cell phone numbers. Companies could face thousands of dollars in fines each time they call a registered number.Redirecting all complaints to the FCC was a last-minute change. The potential for more confusion remained, since outdated instructions for filing complaints were still on government phone messages and Web sites late Tuesday."It will just be a more cumbersome and difficult system than the system we designed,” Federal Trade Commission Chairman Timothy Muris told reporters Tuesday after testifying to a Senate committee. “This doesn’t mean that consumers will be without protection.”Muris said the FTC is moving to stop accepting new numbers while a court fight with telemarketers plays out. Despite the legal wrangling, many of the largest telemarketers say they will abide by the list.Consumers can expect a significant decrease in calls, “assuming telemarketers comply,” Muris said. The FTC was blocked from operating and enforcing the list last week by a federal judge who said the program violates the free speech rights of telemarketers. Muris said the legal fight could stretch into next year.DRAMATIC DECREASE IN CALLS FORESEEN
The list was intended to block about 80 percent of telemarketing calls. Exemptions include calls from charities and pollsters and on behalf of politicians. A company also may call a person on the no-call list if that person has bought, leased or rented from the company within the past 18 months or has inquired about or applied for something during the past three months.Recent legal challenges and the government’s makeshift fixes to keep the list in business have left other holes in the registry’s protections.
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