Telemarketers Lose Caller-ID Anonymity

Telemarketers will be required to transmit their phone numbers and other caller-ID information to the phones of the people being called under rules that took effect Thursday.

The regulation should make it easier for consumers with caller-ID equipment to screen out unwanted telephone sales calls and report marketers that are ignoring requests to be left alone, the Federal Trade Commission said.

Along with their telephone numbers, telemarketers will be required to transmit their names to caller-ID readers where technically possible, the FTC said.

Some phone firms are not yet equipped to handle caller names.

Telemarketers may alternatively transmit the names and phone numbers of the companies for which they are selling products, the FTC said.

The new rule should make it easier for consumers to call telemarketers back and ask to be left alone, according to the Direct Marketing Assn., a trade group.

The FTC tightened telemarketing regulations last year, creating the tremendously popular Do Not Call registry, which forbids telemarketers from calling households that do not want to hear from them.

Americans have placed more than 50 million phone numbers on the no-call list, which has been challenged in court by the marketing association and several telemarketing firms.