When the phone rings, do you just brace yourself for the
sales pitch? If telemarketers
have your number, remember: you have rights.
The Federal Trade Commission has given you an easy-to-use
tool to stop such calls, says
Esther Maddux. She’s a financial management specialist with the
University of Georgia
Extension Service.
Telemarketing fraud costs consumers as much as $40 billion a
year.
"Under the FTC’s Telemarketing Sales Rule, you can stop
a telemarketer from
calling simply by asking him not to phone again," Maddux
says. "If he does, he’s
breaking the law."
You can report him to the Governor’s Office of Consumer
Affairs (1-800-869-1123).
The Telemarketing Sales Rule also stops telemarketers from
calling before 8 a.m. and
after 9 p.m.
"When they do call," Maddux says, "they must
tell you they’re trying to
sell something before they make their pitch. Then, before you
pay, the caller must state
the total cost of the product or service and any restrictions on
getting or using
it."
The rule bans misrepresentations, too. It tightly limits
telemarketing credit-repair
and advance-fee loan services. And it forbids anyone to help
fraudulent telemarketing
behind the scenes.
The rule covers most types of calls. It includes calls to
pitch goods, services,
sweepstakes and prize-promotion and investment breaks.
"The FTC has brought dozens of law-enforcement actions
over the years to halt
telemarketing scams," Maddux says. "This rule adds the
threat of heavy civil
penalties to its enforcement arsenal."
State attorneys general can enforce the rule in federal
court. They can now get
nationwide injunctions to stop fraud operators, no matter where
they are.
"This puts 50 more cops on the national telemarketing
fraud beat," Maddux
says.
The FTC offers a brochure called "Straight Talk about
Telemarketing." It
tells how scams work, how they get your name and number and the
key parts of the FTC
rules. For a copy, write the FTC’s Public Reference Branch, Room
130, 6th Street and
Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20580.
The FTC urges people who feel they’ve been victims of
telemarketing fraud to report the
caller to a national hotline. Call 1-800-876-7060.
