... relating to telemarketing:

    internal index (index to the index)

(other pages at this site)

"DO NOT CALL" LISTS, including

Federal "DO NOT CALL" LISTS

State "DO NOT CALL" LISTS

OTHER COUNTER-TELEMARKETING PAGES (and Responses) - Most say hanging up does not work

PUBLICATIONS & E-ZINES

TCPA - THE TEXT

RESPONSES - Scripts, Humor and Pranks

REFERENCE AND DATA

TELEPHONE AND ANSWERING MACHINE DATA

TELEPHONE SERVICE PROVIDERS

INTERNATIONAL PRIVACY PROTECTION

National Commercial Privacy Laws in Different Countries

PRIVACY

GLBA (Graham-Leach-Bliley Act (US))

U.S. POSTAL SERVICE PROHIBITORY ORDERS (Form 1500)

ANTI-FRAUD RESOURCES AND GOVERNMENT

PHONE NUMBER LOOKUP DIRECTORIES

and "Who Called Me?" Data

COMMERCIAL SITES AND SERVICE SITES

THE OTHER SIDE

NOTHING TO DO WITH TELEMARKETING ... but perhaps of interest to some readers.

VERTICAL LITTER (and "Sharking" Signs)

Caution about Giving Any Personal Information to The DMA

(history of email abuse of address used solely on The Direct Marketing Association (The DMA) "opt out" forms)

NEW Telemarketing Calls to Cell Phones - The rumours are bogus.

NEW Sample Privacy Request Letter for making privacy requests under the GLBA (Graham-Leach- Bliley Act (US))

NEW Zapping RFID tags in credit cards and other identification documents

NEW naming individuals when filing complaints - the Telemarketing Scum Page's admittedly feeble attempt at being radical.

NEW playing with pay phones - Another fun project. Also information about Caller ID and ANI.

Information on "Do Not Call" lists is found on the main Telemarketing Scum Page.

NEW The "Do Not Call" lists votes in Congress

Abbr. Chtsht. - Abbreviated Cheatsheet for posting on lunchroom bulletin board (better than email virus warnings)

A Fun Lunchtime Project to get off targeted lists

Late Breaking Information

How someone defeated their "Call Progress Detection"!

Dry Technical Data

Push Marketing - (customer service is now a dirty word.)

a "Model Company Policy for Unsolicited Phone Calls"

Telephone Rates and "Anti-Slam" Blocks

No Identity - a new trick in which the caller resists identifying the telemarketing operation

The FTC (US) has "accepted" this fraud and now holds the sponsoring business responsible for abuse violations.

Automated Calls (mechanized calls without a live individual) - also describes "Call Traces"

NEW documentation form for documenting calls, "do not call" requests and privacy requests.

instructions on getting the attention of the legal department of a large corporation.

scripts

more hostile scripts

NEW Telescum "Repeat Naming" or Signifying Tactics

illegal taping - a technical explanation.

reducing email spam

Telemarketing Scum Page's Abbreviated Cheatsheet - suitable for framing

FAQs about the editorial content of the Telemarketing Scum Page

and the Telemarketing Scum Page

"Do Not Call" Lists

Federal "Do Not Call" List

Here is the link to the US "donotcall" List homepage: http://donotcall.gov/

The several links here include both the FTC and FCC, but all of these point to a single Federal list.

The FTC has their version of the same thing: www.ftc.gov/donotcall

Here's an FCC link to the same thing www.fcc.gov/cgb/donotcall/

The US national "Do Not Call" list has substantially curtailed unwanted commercial calls to residential phone numbers.
(FTC Announcement, December-02)   -   Sign-up was to begin July-'03, but has started 27-June. (10 million people signed up that weekend!)

donotcall.gov/ (direct link to the registry itself)

Registro Nacional "No Llame" la Regulacin de Ventas de Telemercadeo - de FTC en Español

Here's an alternate explanation from AnswerConnect, who is in the telemarketing business. (As their name implies, they specialize in inbound call centers and the like, which shows it is possible to run a telemarketing business without harassing people.)

TCPA - THE TEXT

It's a little dry but worth bookmarking both for later reference. The TCPA is the Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991 (47 U.S.C. 227)   I'm looking for a new link

47 CFR part 64 or if you prefer, in .pdf format

This is a WAIS retrieval of the FCC's regulations implementing the TCPA as it relates to Telescum.

47 CFR § 222 - "Privacy of customer information"

There are better compilations under the Federal "Do Not Call" links above, but here's another one.

"State "Do Not Call" Lists (US)

This list of state lists in the US is provided by the Pennsylvania A.G.'s office.

OTHER COUNTER-TELEMARKETING PAGES (and Responses)

- Most say hanging up does not work

The guy who successfully sued telemarketers in small claims court at killthecalls.com - Link and information concerning the guy who successfully sued persistant telescum

Website of Andre-Tascha Lamme who made a mini-hobby of sueing telescum. NPR reported that he collected about $6000 to partially defray his expense. The telescum called him "money-grubbing". Presumably nobody informed Mr. Lamme that these particular telescum are personally exempt from all state and Federal Do Not Call laws.

http://www.yahoo.com/Business_and_Economy/Marketing/Anti_Telemarketing/ (Yahoo search directory location)

Gravel Gertie Takes on Telephone Solicitation!

general information about telemktg. lists

www.antitelemarketer.com MAY BE OUT OF SERVICE

The site now has a mandatory "pass-through" link to an email list server of some sort. I was unable to use it to get into the site, and I'm fairly knowledgeable about the net. (I was running Netscape through a proxyserver firewall, so it may work for someone else.) This domain links to most anti-telemarketing websites. I believe it was started by V. Nestico. A wide variety of resources, with some commentary. Includes description of person who collected over $10,000.00 from telemarketers (including what appears to be a small claims case against B of A).

Other pages from V. Nestico:

Tormenting Telemarketers

the Official Point System for handling these assholes; great responses from V. Nestico

More responses from V. Nestico

Karen's Koncepts antitelemarketing links Karen has a series of well-organized net links.

Putting An End To Telephone Solicitations

This page includes a short form used to keep a record of requests for written confirmations of "do-not-call" requests and policies. If you want just the form (copy, this site) click here.

TeleJunk: How to Fight Back

explanation of telemktr ethics, and ways to handle, including legal info.

The Digest is a daily online magazine about the long distance & telecommunications industry. Long distance rates, book reviews and editorials. A month after The Standard crashed and burned, this e-zine made the Telemarketing Scum Page their first telemarketing link! So that's why their banner is here.

Other Pages at their Website:

consumer education

long distance rates links

toll-free issues

and of course.. telemarketing

RESPONSES - Scripts, Humor and Pranks

Spend Some Quality Time With Your Telemktr

more responses

How to Handle Telemktrs

fun responses

Form to keep records of requests not to call; also addresses attempts by telemarketing operations to disguise their identity.

REFERENCE AND DATA

at this website - How I defeated their "Call Progress Detection"!

at this website - Dry Technical Data

(or go directly to Reference and Further Information on that page for tech references and predictive dialer patents.)

555-1212.com

White Pages - United States (includes reverse phone book)

at this website - instructions on getting the attention of the legal department of a large corporation.

reducing email spam - This isn't a spam information site, but I do have a page on how to reduce the amount of spam you receive.

at this website - illegal taping - a technical explanation of detecting muted 'beep' tones.

TELEPHONE AND ANSWERING MACHINE DATA

Cell Phones and Personal Electronics on Airlines - Cellphones do not affect safety on airlines. Cellphones cannot interfere with avionics.

Phone Losers of America

Phone hackers

United Phone Losers

Phone hackers

www.thisisarecording.com

"T he Web Page You Have Received" - telephone sounds, etc.

errorbeeps1.wav SIT tones

(SIT tones tell predictive dialers they have an invalid number.) This one is from www.thisisarecording.com If it doesn't play clearly directly from the net, try downloading it.

errorbeeps1.wav (15k) (local file; same as above)

digitally synthesized (45k) sample (local file), courtesy Dale

first beep only (not recommended unless you don't want all three tones)

"Dude's" version (dog barking)

Telephones and Recorders: BRD Security Products

answ ering machine detection from Dialogic (144.htm)

SIT tone descriptions from Dialogic (141.htm)

Includes frequencies. Can a Radio Shack red box be used to simulate SIT tones (DTMF notwithstanding)?

Call Progress Analysis from Dialogic (136.htm)

"Call Traces" (part of the "Automated Mechanized Calls" page)

TELEPHONE SERVICE PROVIDERS

PIC code lists

These are the codes you dial to select a long distance carrier. If you select one and dial 1-700-555-4141 (North America), you should get that carrier's recording.

www.thedigest.com/faq/picodes divided into six webpages; appears to be most current.

www.10-10-dial-around.com/alphaPICcodes.html alpha w/phone nos. of carriers but may be old.

abtolls.com/compare/dialaround/dialaroundwhoswho.html numerical but may be old.

ANTI-FRAUD RESOURCES AND GOVERNMENT

Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991 (described above), along with

47 CFR 1200 also available in .pdf format

Section 1200 are the Regs. implementing the TCPA.

47 CFR 1100 also available in .pdf format

Section 1100 explains verification procedures, an anti-slamming measure.

47 CFR Part 64 index

U.S. Postal Service 'Characteristic s of Telemktg. Fraud Schemes'

FTC (U.S. govt.) FTC (U.S. govt.) search engine Type "telemarketing" for a list of FTC and private documents.

http://fraud.org/

With an URL like that, they should be telemarketing!

List of State A.G. Addresses - from a telemktg. products site

at this website - Instructions on getting the attention of the legal department of large corporations.

- Most corporations don't especially appreciate their vendors and sales departments creating legal trouble.

at this website - No Identity - a New Trick In Which the Caller Resists Identifying The Telemarketing Operation

PHONE NUMBER LOOKUP DIRECTORIES

"Who Called Me?"

www.callercomplaints.com - net community database of "who called me?" numbers.

800notes.com - net community database of "who called me?" numbers.

This is a project of Julia, who also developed an unrelated "social network" discussion community at advenet.com

whocalled.us - another community data base of "who called me?" numbers

Telephone Prefix and Payphone Lookup

www.thedirectory.org/pref/ - telephone prefix lookup

Look up locations assigned to telephone prefixes

www.payphone-directory.org

What it says. Working payphones are great for providing to commercial entities who like to collect phone numbers. The ones with "*" do not accept incoming calls.

COMMERCIAL SITES AND SERVICE SITES

Most send formal notices to telemarketers, much as the junk mailers' association offers a "preference list" for people who don't want junk mail. One problem, at least with junk mailers, is that there are scum who use the "do not mail" list as part of their mailing list!

The new FCC law means that notice must be honored (at least theoretically) but that doesn't prevent someone from using such a list as a call list. This may not be a problem, though, since the telephone costs are much higher.

www.junkbusters.com

This site has free software which blocks some web ads.

private-citizen.com

A business which, for a fee offers to send notification to most nationally franchised telemarketing scum (e.g., Olin Mills photography) to be placed on a "do not call" list.

Mr. Postman - for-fee Telemarketing and Reduction Service

THE OTHER SIDE

Some of these associations are also involved in issues unrelated to outbound telemarketing.

Term Paper written by a telemarketer. with excellent research

"eurocallcentre.com" - Fedma Web Site

index of associations and lobbying groups, some US listings such as DMA's main site not included.

another index

www.ataconnect.org - American Teleservices Association

www.the-dma.org - The Direct Marketing Association

They're the reason you don't want to include correct address information in a state "Do Not Call" list.

PRIVACY

National Commercial Privacy Laws

European Union

"Everyone has the right to respect for his private and family life, his home and his correspondence. - European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms

Data Protection in the European Union (en)

Protectión de Datos en la Unión Europea (es)

General Index - European Union (en)

European Union Regulation on Protection of Individuals (relating to) Personal Data (EU policy) (en)

UK Data Protection Act of 1998 - This appears to be reflected in the EU's legislation.

European Telemarketing Regulations

A directive of European Convention on Human Rights requires Member States to make a choice between banning completely direct marketing calls to "subscribers" without their prior consent, or banning them only to "subscribers" who do not wish to receive such calls.

The UK took the later route and made compliance with the UK Corporate Telephone Preference Service mandatory. This apparently also applies to calls to businesses.

United States

Please see the numerous listings relating to GLBA, HIPPA, and TCPA. In many cases "automatic" privacy is not provided for under US law and therefore the individual must "opt-out" of having data used for other than the explicit purpose for which the data was given.

The Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA) - The GLBA is one part of the US privacy law. (en)

47 CFR § 222 - "Privacy of customer information" - This is a little-publicized law that prevents access to individually identifiable customer information for marketing purposes. This law dates back to 1934, but was updated to include "location" information (GPS and cellular based e-911 data).

This law will become increasingly important as carriers must seek permission prior to delivering targeted advertisements, in part because of the requirement to display "unique view hits" or account data. If this law is enforced, such targeted advertisements may be used, but only if they are optional as part of a payment scheme.

Google search, "privacy of customer information" - This search can be focused by typing a key word (e.g., telecommunications) in the search box after the quoted text.

Sample Privacy Request Letter for making privacy requests under the GLBA (Graham-Leach-Bliley Act)

and some more samples, from Privacy Rights Clearinghouse (privacyrights.org)

the GWN

Privacy Commissioner of Canada (en, fr)

Commission Recognises Adequacy of Canadian Privacy Laws (en)

opinion on privacy in Canada and the US. This is presumably prior to PIPED (en)

Québec (fr)

Oz

Federal Privacy Law (Australia)

Telecommunications Privacy - The Interaction of the Privacy and Telecommunications Regulation by Holly Raiche (2001)

Japan

(en)

(ja)

Israel - certain databases must be registered with Ministry of Justice; databases must be used only for purpose intended.

Mishrad haMishftim (Ministry of Justice) (y) - Protection of Privacy Law 5741-1981, 35 LSI 136, and section 7 of the Basic Law on Human Dignity and Freedom (5752-1992), administered by Registrar of Data Bases, Ministry of Justice, 6 Hillel Street, P.O. Box 2808, JM 91027; 972 2 625 56 50

privacy laws (starts on pg. 12) (en)

summary of privacy laws (en)

Basic Law on Human Dignity and Liberty (5752-1992, 12th Knesset) (y) (arb)

Summary (en)

Text of Basic Law (from Ministry of Foreign Affairs (en))

Availability of Information from Government Databases (en)

International Indexes

cs3-hq.oecd.org/scripts/pwv3/privcontacts.htm (en)

OTHER PRIVACY

SCN's Privacy and Security webpage

Supermarket customer tracking cards www.nocards.org

Their emphasis is to refuse to participate at all. My opinion is that these customer tracking cards are presently causing more harm to the supermarkets that use them, and that bogus data is better than no data.

In some cases, identification is required. Most of the ones that require identification do so for cheque cashing purposes, so it is likely they have a procedure for non-verified cards without check cashing privileges.

"No National ID" website (www.networkusa.org/fingerprint.shtml)

including State Driver's License data   One thing not mentioned -- cover the printed data with white label tape.

Electronic Privacy Information Center on Privacy from epic.org .

Good research on a number of topics, including the Graham-Leach-Bliley Act (GLBA).

Using the DMA Mail Preference Service (DMA Choice)

Results of using The DMA's Mail Preference Service (now called DMA Choice)

... and a reason to never give a business or organisation a direct email address

GLBA (Sharing of Personal Information)

The GLBA is the "Graham Leach Bliley Act" (US). Together with miscellaneous other laws, the GLBA restricts how personal information can be used for marketing.

Sample Privacy Request Letter for making privacy requests under the GLBA

and some more samples, from Privacy Rights Clearinghouse (privacyrights.org)

description of GLBA from EPIC

EPIC's reponse to a request for comments by the US Dept. of the Treasury

U.S. POSTAL SERVICE PROHIBITORY ORDERS (Form 1500, US only)

A U.S. Postal Service Form 1500 Prohibitory Order is used to block commercial mail that the recipient finds offensive.

www.nodirectmail.org

I'm not sure who the author is, but the model on his webpages is a lot more appealing than  Telemarketing Haddie  in my quot;no parking sign logo.

Here is USPS Form 1500 (www.usps.com/forms/_pdf/ps1500.pdf)

Add your name to the top, initial block , check block 1a, open the offensive mailpiece and take it to the local post office.

junkmail.html

The Telemarketing Scum Page's own description of USPS Form 1500.

VERTICAL LITTER

I have a separate page which includes web link references devoted to Vertical Litter, Sharking and Municipal Enforcement

GENERAL INTEREST

anti-chain letter site

Gullibility Virus Warning!

This is Not a Hoax!

NEW Zapping RFID tags in credit cards and other identification documents

back to Counter-Telemarketing Tactics - (this site)

site first posted November 3, 1996; reposted May, 1997.
This website can be found by searching for "The Telemarketing Scum Page" on a search engine.

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