Contrary to common belief, telemarketers can call you on
your cell phone. There are no laws which prohibit them
from doing so. However, there is a law in place which
limits their ability to do so. This law says that
telemarketers cannot use automated dialing systems to
call cell phone numbers. Telemarketers almost always use
these automated systems because it makes their job so
much faster and easier. Further, practical business
sense keeps telemarketers from calling you: they know
that you get charged for cell phone calls and are more
likely to hang up in the first seconds once you figure
out it is a telemarketer calling.
Some telemarketers have changed their practices though
and are calling cell phones (even if it means using
their fingers to press the buttons). As a cell owner,
this can be incredibly bothersome and end up costing you
a lot of money. Luckily, there are a few steps you can
take to stop telemarketers from calling your cell.
First, you should get your cell number added to the
national Do Not Call list by going to donotcall.gov.
Alternatively, you can call 1-888-382-1222 and have your
cell number removed from the telemarketers’ list. It
usually takes about a month before your number gets
removed from lists and it will stay removed for 5 years.
Secondly, you can contact your cell provider and find
out if they have a system for letting you block all
calls and text messages from blocked or unknown numbers.
Also ask your phone provider if they have any system
which will let you block SMS messages from the internet
as most spam messages are sent online. The downside to
these methods is that you could end up blocking calls
from people you really want to hear from. Some people
choose to have their personal phone numbers blocked and
in other cases calls happen to show up like this. For
example, calls from my sister who lives abroad come up
as unknown because she calls from Skype.
If you are really adamant about stopping telemarketers
from calling your cell, then you will have to pay for a
solution. You will want to first upload an app to your
cell phone which unblocks blocked calls. These apps
usually aren’t going to tell you who is calling though,
just give you the number. So you will also need to sign
up for a reverse phone directory subscription. When you
see an unknown call coming in, you will have to ignore
the call and then use the reverse phone directory to
find out who the number belongs to. If the reverse phone
directory shows that the call is coming from a
telemarketer, you can send them a message asking to be
taken off their calling list. |
