Why Is My Do Not Call Registry Not Working?

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A number of consumers who put their numbers on the Do Not Call Registry find that they continue to receive unwanted telemarketing calls. While these calls are an annoyance, they can be seriously bad news for cell phone subscribers who are on a per-minute plan, as they are not only receiving unwanted calls, they’re having to pay for them as well.

There are a number of reasons for this, and the bad news is that you may not have  a lot of control over the situation. There are legal remedies as well as software solutions that can stymie telemarketers’ efforts, however. One place to start is a law known as  the Telephone Consumers Protection Act, or TCPA.

What is the TCPA?

The TCPA was passed in 1991 in response to growing  complaints over relentless telemarketing calls. Although this predates the use of modern cell phones and public use of the internet, technology available at the time made it easy for telemarketers to use “auto-dialers,” which are devices that can call hundreds or even thousands of numbers per day at a very low cost.

This law, which has been updated and amended over the past three decades to cover such technologies as voicemail and text messaging, generally makes it illegal for a business entity or an individual to call consumers without their express permission. Violators can be liable for between $500 and $1,500 per incident.

One provision of the TCPA was the Do Not Call Registry. This enables consumers to have their phone numbers placed on a do-not-call list, available to businesses in order to let them know that they are not to initiate contact without the subscriber’s permission.

My Number is On the Do Not Call Registry. Why am I Still Getting Calls?

The unfortunate fact is that most of the calls made with autodialers (also known as “robocalls“) are generated by scam artists, many of whom are not even in the U.S. These are thieves and con artists who may actually be calling from India, Eastern Europe, or just about anywhere.

However, thanks to a technology known as “spoofing,” the calls appear to originate from within the U.S. With spoofing technology, a telephone call made from anywhere on the planet can be routed through a U.S. number via a Voice over IP (VoIP) network, thus concealing the caller’s true identity.  This is a serious problem; on the average, these operations manage to steal $15 million per year from U.S. consumers by fraudulently obtaining their personal information.

What Can I Do About It?

Unfortunately, it is almost impossible to trace these spoofed calls, so legal action is not a practical option.  There is however a software solution known as “RoboKiller,” which re-routes spoofed robocalls to an “answer bot” that interacts with the caller, protecting you while wasting a great deal of the caller’s time.

This said, there are plenty of scofflaws who are willing to ignore the TCPA. If you have been receiving unwanted calls, voice mails or text messages, you can find out what your legal options are by consulting an experienced TCPA attorney.