Ever gotten a call from a telemarketer? If you answered no, I’d love to know your secret, but in reality, we’ve all been there and we can all agree that sales calls are SUPER annoying. Luckily, there are a number of ways you can avoid unwanted sales calls. First, we’ll start with why you’ll want your number on the National Do Not Call Registry (DNC) – and how to do it!.
Just like the days when you’d make sure to get your name on the list for the hippest night club, the DNC will bring back those feelings because you’ll definitely want your landline and mobile numbers on this government monitored list (more specifically, the FTC).
Where do I sign up?
At an early age, we’ve always been told to share, but in the case of our personal phones, we believe you should have complete control over them and have the ability to choose who you’d like to share your number with. By visiting the DNC’s registry page, you can sign up and never have to worry about your registration ever expiring.
To register follow these three steps:
- 1. Enter up to three phone numbers and your email address. Click Submit.
- 2. Check for errors. Click Register.
- 3. Check your email for a message from Register@donotcall.gov. Open the email and click on the link within 72 hours to complete your registration.
Please note: Your phone number will show up on the DNC registry within 24 hours, but it may take up to 31 days for you to stop getting telemarketing calls.
What to do if you’re still getting calls
Once you’ve signed-up on the DNC registry, you should stop getting calls from telemarketers. Thank goodness, right?! Unfortunately, not so fast, there’s always a loop-hole somewhere. In the case of political calls, charitable calls, debt collection calls, informational calls, and telephone survey calls, they do not fall into the telemarketing category. (Darn!)
However, if you’ve been registered with the DNC for more than 31 days and get a sales call or a robocall (a call that end up being recorded messages), then you should file a complaint. We definitely don’t want these calls to weasel their way back in.
To make reporting simple, the FTC lets you easily submit violations on their website. But don’t forget to include the following points:
- Save the date and time the calls occurred
- Record the phone number it came from
- Write down the name of the business that called and whether not it was a robocall
Will I see results?
Fortunately, with the help of DNC, a lot of the big reputable businesses have learned their lesson – with a hefty fine of up to $16,000 per call, it’s no wonder. But not all businesses are law-abiding companies and they choose to take the shadier route by using robocalls to get a hold of you, which still violates the DNC. Given how easy it is for the company to spoof their telephone number, it can be very tough for the FTC to track down the perpetrator. This is why you need to take matter into your own hands. When you get a telemarketing call from a robocaller on your mobile phone, we recommend hanging up on the call (don’t press any buttons even if they say doing so will get you off of their list) and downloading Hiya.
Hiya gives you spam alerts on incoming calls, so you can decide if the call is worth answering. It also lets you block them so you never have to deal with them again. Don’t just take our word for it—download it free in the Google Play Store!
