How to Reduce Telemarketing Calls

For years telemarketers have been bothering us at all times of the day on our phones trying to sell us their wares. Then a few years ago the FCC finally came to our rescue by creating the 'National Do Not Call List'. It's suppose to help reduce the telemarketing calls that we receive.

If you're getting bother by telemarketers, and want to reduce these calls Junkbusters offers the following suggestions to help reduce this type of annoyance:

1. Register your phone number(s) in the National Do-Not-Call Registry.
2. When a telemarketer calls, always say "Put this number on your don't-call-list." (If your Federal Do-Not-Call registration has entered into effect, you may be able to proceed directly to enforcement action against them.)
3. Use Junkbuster's Anti-telemarketing script, which probes whether the call was made by a telemarketing bureau. It also helps you probe whether the call was illegal under the Telephone Consumer Protection Act, and whether you can collect $500-$1500. You can print out copies keep by your phones at home. Like all Junkbusters products and services, it's free.
4. You can tell the Direct Marketing Association that you don't want calls from any of their member companies, though if you use the Federal registry this is unlikely to be of extra help.
5. Read Junkbuster's extensive guide on how telemarketers work and how to stop them calling you.
6. Your state may have a "Do Not Call" list where you can register your phone number. You can check your state in our guide, but most states coordinate with the National registry, so state registries have a similar effect to the National one.
7. Recording "out-of-service tones" (also known as SIT tones) at the beginning of your answering machine message will fool some telemarketers' computers into not calling your number again. Download the tones here. There are also lots of anti-telemarketing devices you can buy.
• Side note: For the people out there who would like to know the frequencies of these tone, they are: 985.2Hz, 1370.6Hz, and 1776.7Hz
  
8. If you want source documents describing your legal rights, start with Junkbuster's collection of the laws, rules and regulations governing telemarketing.
9. Junkbusters also maintains an extensive list of links to other sites concerning telemarketing.