Let’s try to review the facts and take a look at some important guidelines set by the Federal Communications Commission on telemarketing and autodialers.

1. Telemarketers are REQUIRED to give his or her name, company, telephone number or address where he or she can be contacted. You should expect these details on the initial part of the call.

In the tellows Call Guideline, you are given a script with a set of questions which you can use to verify information about the telemarketer.

2. No phone solicitation/ telemarketing is allowed before 8 am or after 9 pm.

3. As soon as you ask the telemarketer to include you in the do-not-call list, they should comply and you shouldn’t be receiving any more calls from them! At least for the next 5 years (read below).

4. The telemarketer must honor your do-not-call request for five years and you must repeat your request once you get the same call after the period.

5. The national DNC only applies for home voice or personal wireless phone numbers, and does not make telephone solicitations unlawful when it comes to a business number, although the latter can still register under the national DNC.

6. Check if your state also has its state do-not-call lists.

7. You will definitely receive a call from an entity if you have made an inquiry, application, purchase or transaction regarding their products or service. This is already called an established business relationship (EBR). They should stop calling though as soon as you requested for it.

8. Autodialers and any prerecorded voice messages may not be used to contact number assigned to any emergency telephone line.

9. Autodialers should provide a phone number (which should not be a 900 number or any number with charges) which you can call to ask that the entity no longer call you.

10. If you have a caller ID, a telemarketer should display its phone number, the name of the company, and/or another phone number for a call back.

For more info:

http://www.fcc.gov/guides/unwanted-telephone-marketing-calls