U.S. to Set Up List Barring Cold Calls

The federal government hopes to put a chill on cold-calling today.

President Bush is expected to announce the creation of a nationwide “do-not-call” list that people can use to fend off the telemarketers who peddle everything from home improvements to credit cards to newspaper subscriptions, seemingly most often during the dinner hour.

The list, on which Americans will be able to register their telephone numbers, is part of a yearlong crackdown on telemarketing, which has ballooned into a $700-million-a-year business that generates 100 million calls a day.

And almost as many headaches for people such as Ida Yarborough.

With eight phone lines for her home-based business, the Los Angeles tax accountant said the daily telemarketing cycle is “just like clockwork. The calls start at 6 p.m. and ... I know instantly when I answer it that it’s a telemarketer, because they butcher my name.

“I don’t mind the ringing and picking up the phone. It’s the work you have to do to get them off the phone. They get aggressive.”

When the new rules take effect this fall, telemarketers who ring or fax numbers on the list will face fines of $11,000 a call.

The Federal Trade Commission in November approved the consolidation and coordination of similar rules in many states, including California. But some of the biggest national telemarketers, such as banks, phone companies and airlines, weren’t covered by the rules.

On Thursday, the Federal Communications Commission closed those loopholes.

“No longer will consumers be forced to endure unwanted telephone calls and faxes,” said Chairman Michael K. Powell, who described the do-not-call list as “the most sweeping consumer protection measure ever adopted by the FCC.”

In the last two years, the FCC has received more than 5,500 complaints from AT&T; customers alone about the company’s telemarketing practices. Many said AT&T; didn’t honor their requests to be removed from its calling list.

AT&T; Corp. spokesman Bob Nersesian said the complaints represent a fraction of the more than 100 million telemarketing calls the company makes each year. “Ninety-nine percent of all the calls we make bring no complaints,” he said.

That may be because people, like Washington business lobbyist Brian Moir and his wife, Bev Andrew, have just stopped answering.

“We now have a new telephone answering machine; we simply do not pick up the phone,” Moir said. “Those mornings that my wife and I play hooky and work from home, we dread it. Neither of us can have our direct office lines forwarded home because it’s nonstop telephone solicitors calling” between business calls.

Registration for the national do-not-call list starts today in several states west of the Mississippi River. Nationwide registration is expected to be available a week or two later. The number is (800) 382-1222. The Web address is www.donotcall.gov.

Since California allowed residents to sign onto a list in April, more than 1 million people have registered more than 2 million phone numbers. A spokeswoman for the California attorney general’s office said the state would forward the numbers to the FTC today.

The federal registry will be kept on a computer database overseen by the FTC and administered by AT&T.; Companies and states will have to synchronize their lists with the government’s at least every 90 days.

Under the rules, telemarketers can call consumers who haven’t placed their numbers on a do-not-call list. A company also can call someone on the registry for up to 18 months after that person has purchased a product or completed another business transaction, and for up to three months after that person has made an inquiry of the company.

Political and nonprofit groups are exempt from the rules and will be permitted to contact anyone on the list.

Direct marketers had opposed the list as unnecessary in an age when telephones have caller ID, answering machines and other devices to intercept unwanted calls. They also complained that the cost of doing business would skyrocket.

The American Teleservices Assn., a Washington trade group that represents direct marketing call centers, consultants and equipment suppliers, predicted that the new rules would cost the industry 2 million jobs.

Another trade group threw its support behind the new federal rules, saying they would be easier to navigate than myriad state measures.

“On balance, it is better we have one national list than a lot of state lists,” said Bob Wientzen, president of the Direct Marketing Assn.