TAXPAYER ‘PROTECTIONS’ HAVE HANG-UPS
How many of you this week, like me, have had a telemarketer call your phone despite the fact that you are registered on both the Tennessee and the National Do-Not-Call Registries?
I recently received a call from (415) 301-4920 at 9:18 a.m. and again at 3:54 p.m. I allowed the calls to go to voicemail each time. I called the number to request that my number or name be removed from the telemarketer call list, only to hear a three-toned alert following by the annoying, “Your call cannot be completed as dialed.”
A day later, I received a call from “Unknown Caller” for about the fourth time in the last two weeks. Each time I answered, I asked who’s calling. The first time, the caller asked me to complete a survey. I asked the name of the company since it’s illegal to block the identity of telemarketers making calls in Tennessee. The initial call was abruptly terminated, and each subsequent call ended in a hang-up when I inquired about the name of the company.
Then I received three calls within a 24-hour period from 1-888859-0906. Again, I allowed the calls to go to voice mail and then immediately followed up each call to ask that my number be removed from the telemarketer list as is the legal process. Each time, my call to the exact number was answered with shrill beeps.
These calls occurred within a fourday window despite having every number affiliated with me, my family and home registered in two registries designed to protect consumers — registries funded by taxpayer dollars. Obviously, these programs exist only for the purpose of saying they exist since neither functions.
Too harsh, you say? The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) estimated American consumers received “about 29 billion robocalls in 2016 — or roughly 230 calls per household” in just one year.
On the website of the Tennessee “Do Not Call Program,” the description sounds really good: “The Tennessee Do Not Call Program is designed to provide relief to Tennessee citizens from unwanted telemarketing calls to their residence. The Tennessee Do-Not-Call Telephone Sales Solicitation law T.C.A. Section 654-401 et seq., directs the Tennessee Public Utility Commission to promulgate regulations and to compile and maintain a ‘Do-Not-Call Register.’ The register consists of land line and cell phone numbers of Tennessee residential telephone subscribers who have elected not to receive telephone solicitations.”
While the law supposedly protects landline and cell phone numbers that are registered and subjects those who break this law to fines of $2,000 per incident, according to T.C.A. 65-4-405 and Rule 1220-4-11-.07, the program is ineffective.
I’ve filled out online complaints with no response, no acknowledgement of receipt, nothing. And, yes, our numbers are registered on the national list within the jurisdiction of the Federal Trade Commission, which touts its efforts in “protecting America’s consumers” with little apparent effect.
So, why is this important beyond the nuisance of dealing with unwanted calls?
In 2016, Bankrate.com estimates 41 million Americans had suffered identity theft. The FCC issued a national warning earlier this year about a phone scam called “cramming” that records the victim’s voice response to be used fraudulently later to approve a purchase of a service or good. A “one-ring” scam seeking call-backs results in significant international phone charges. Many of the calls originate from 268, 284, 473, 664, 649, 767, 809, 829, 849 and 876 area codes.
What do taxpayers get for our money funding these “protection services?” Most would say, nothing.
Robin Smith, a former chairwoman of the Tennessee Republican Party, owns Rivers Edge Alliance.