The scourge of unwanted calls

HAVE you ever received a phone call while you are up to your neck in work only to hear the other side going on and on about a financial product you have no interest in?

Having a phone is no longer a convenience nowadays. It has become a necessity for us to keep in touch with family and friends. It is also essential for work, bank transactions and a multitude of other services.

I have a landline, the number of which I have long forgotten. It came as a package together with my Unifi subscription. The number was neither given out to friends nor used in application forms. For all official dealings that require a contact, I provide my mobile number.

Still, this phone would ring at least once a month with offers from competing telcos baiting me to switch over or some obscure company promoting dubious entrepreneurship training. In order not to waste my time and theirs, I would usually tell them politely I have no interest in whatever they were selling.

Some of them were courteous and thanked me for my time. A few rude ones would hang up abruptly. Having learnt my lesson, I almost never pick up this phone when it rings. There is no reason for me to answer as no one I know calls me on this number.

Just this Friday past, it rang while I was still in bed. It was half past nine in the morning. I am typically a late riser. If the proverb the early bird catches the worm is true, I would die of hunger. Still groggy from slumber, I let it ring till it stopped. But that was not the end of it. The phone rang until it disconnected five more times. After that, I got up to turn off the ringer permanently.

I also get similar unsolicited calls on my mobile phone. It is more difficult to ignore here as I use it for my work as well and I do get calls from unfamiliar numbers. However, the unsolicited calls are mostly from financial institutions offering personals loans and credit card balance transfer. The other one is purportedly from companies selling investment plans. Unsolicited calls pushing products like these are a nuisance. They become a harassment when our days are consistently being interrupted like that.

One popular modus operandi by these sales people is to feign familiarity. The following is one such call I received recently while rushing to meet a deadline.

“Good morning, Mr Tan. How are you?” the sweet voice from the other end greeted me cheerily.

“I’m fine, thank you,” I replied, thinking she was someone I know.

“I’m Elaine from so-and-so bank. Do you remember me?” “I’m sorry I don’t.” “Oh,” she sighed in disappointment. “But never mind, our bank has this new product.” And she prattled on and on without missing a beat after that.

I had to stop her halfway to tell her I don’t need a loan and was too busy to listen to her. Again, she let her disappointment show. They really know how to play this game but I knew better to not fall into the trap. I have no use for a loan, probably don’t qualify for one and was not in the mood to play along. I hung up after thanking her.

I empathise with these people who are into telemarketing. Their take home pay is dependent on the number of sales they close. On the other hand, repeatedly getting cold calls from the same company touting the same product I have declined several times previously has become more than an annoyance.

To find ways to stop such calls, I searched the Internet for the Personal Data Protection Act (PDPA) 2010. Apparently, this Act is to prevent our personal information from being acquired and used for purposes other than it was being intended for. I am no lawyer and found the technical and legal jargon difficult to understand.

From what I could figure out, business entities by default have a clause that says they can use our personal data lodged with them to provide us with marketing and promotional materials which also include cross selling products contracted to third party vendors. To withdraw consent from receiving such materials or communications, we have to inform the entities concerned. More specifically, I wanted to find out what happened to the proposed Do Not Call (DNC) Registry proposed under the PDPA way back in 2014. The DNC regime forbids entities from making telemarketing calls to consumers listed in the registry. There were a lot of news about the proposal but none on its implementation.

Ideally, the registry should also bar political parties from sending text messages and automated survey calls. I have personally received a birthday message from a politician. Friends have complained of receiving similar messages. It makes one wonder how they got all this personal information.

I also do not fancy having my personal data being sold or made available to unauthorised parties. I suspect this is happening because some of the calls were from entities I have no dealings with. I hope the authorities will expedite the introduction of this registry. The frequency and blatantness of such calls have become intrusive and disruptive of late.

While they are at it, they could do consumers a big favour by explaining the PDPA using easy to understand language. We can only benefit from it if we understand how it works. At the moment, I dare say most of us have no inkling of the PDPA and the protection it proffers, and continue to be rudely and helplessly assailed with unwanted calls of such nature.