Those of us old enough to remember when fax machines were new, got to see how this should work. Faxes were an immediate hit with businesses. It didn't take long for the unscrupulous to start sending "fax spam".

This impacted businesses - suddenly, this wonderful new business tool was becoming useless, because that important customer contract was buried amongst pages and pages of junk. Congress acted quickly, prohibit advertising via fax in 1991. This was instantly effective.

It would have been easy to make a general provision to prohibit advertising to any end-device at the recipient's end: fax, telephone, or whatever. However, you can be sure that businesses that live from advertising protested at the idea of stringent restrictions (and handed over the green stuff). Plus, Congress wouldn't want to put a crimp in their own campaigning.

So, yes, you are absolutely right. However, money talks, and crappy advertisers have more of it that you and I do...

There is a no call list, which I am on for a reason. Thank you for leaving me alone. click.

I make it a point to not do business with, or donate to organizations that do this. If it weren't for jobs and my kids, I'd get rid of the phone.

I especially hate the robo-calls, you know, the ones that ring and you answer, and you're immediately put on hold? I always hang up! Or when "Heather" calls to tell me there is "no problem with your credit card, but..." Well if there's no problem, WHY ARE YOU CALLING MY PHONE?

Thanks to modern technology, we have defenses available. Caller id, voicemail, and answering machines give me the upper hand. I have no obligation to treat these time thieves with any consideration. Usually, I detect an 800 series number then terminate the call without an answer. In the event that I do answer, I just terminate the call without a response. I am not on the do not call list since that list is a prospecting tool for charities and politicians. I have no obligation to listen to messages and hit the erase button. Once in a while, I answer and an obvious solicitor asks for me by name. I reply, who may I say is calling? Once they identify themselves, I terminate the call. It's a big game, so have fun with it. The people who run our government will never do anything.

By and large, the only junk calls we get are on our land line, which we retain mostly for making international calls and for faxing. A couple times a week we'll get robocalls from our kids' schools, which we can play back on our answering machine. Other than that, we pretty much ignore the land line, and let the answering machine do the work.

I really don't get any junk calls on my cell phone. I remember signing up for one of the do-not-call initiatives sometime back, so maybe that's got something to do with it.

I was having a problem with a number that kept on calling and leaving long blank messages. Sometimes it'd call 2-3 times in a row (in under 3 minutes). I got fed up & called my phone carrier, who kindly informed me that I can block specific calls (I don't want to make a list of who can call through because I have kids in school, and I can't put every home/cell/work number in there).

Now, whenever somebody calls for something I don't want, be it a "charity," survey, or politician, I block the number. It's sucky to have to do that, but less time-intense than litigation.

However, since somebody whose name escapes me now used my number on something and now has collectors after them, I do sometimes pick up just to tell them that no, I am not that person and they need to stop calling (otherwise they just try from another number). Most of them are pretty good about it, and it saves me some time in the long run.

http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2013/01/robocallchallenge.shtm

Most of the calls I still get are of the illegal robocall variety. That and the 'bot voice' ones.

Many years ago, I read a Dear Abby column in which an airline pilot wrote in and said that calls from telemarketers would interrupt his sleep that that could affect his ability to fly a plane safely and put the lives of hundreds of passengers at risk. While that initially makes sense, I had to wonder if he was able to get the sufficient amount of sleep if his mother called him. What about if his girlfriend rang him up wanting to come over? What if it was just a plain wrong number? Using his argument, nobody should call anybody else because they might accidentally wake up a sleeping pilot and cause a plane crash. If sleep is that important to the safety of those on your aircraft, turn off the phone before you go to sleep!

ABUSE YOUR TELEMARKETING CALLERS.

MOCK THEM.

MOCK THE WOMEN FOR BEING WOMEN, AND MOCK THE MEN FOR BEING WOMEN.

MOCK THEM FOR THEIR ACCENTS AND THEIR WAGES.

MOCK THEM FOR THEIR FATHERLESS CHILDREN AND THEIR OWN FATHERLESSNESS.

HURT THEIR FEELINGS, AND DO IT WITH ALL YOUR MIGHT.

Back when I had a landline, this would buy me six or ten months of peace... When I was sufficiently aggressive about it.

I used to telemarket in college. After four years, I heard it all.I understand the abuse of privacy angle, I understand that nobody wants to talk to a telemarketer.

What I don't understand, is why people want to be abusive in dealing with them. A little joke is one thing, as in "hey if I sign up will you talk dirty to me?" etc etc etc. Alot of the time, we used to play along when we were bored. But the yelling and screaming and cursing and carrying on? Really?

Telemarketers don't want to be in the job they're in. It's usually the only entry level job they can get that doesn't require a hair net and will give them marketable skills for future careers in sales and marketing, customer service, administration, and public office. (Think about it, you would need to know how to talk to people and sell them on ideas, right?)

They don't want to call you. They don't want to disturb you while you're changing Johnny's diaper or ringing hubby's bell. (Yeah we got that one too. We'd call back every thirty seconds or so...) You can scream your head off at them, it's going in one ear and out the other. Water off a ducks back. They don't care. And if they do care, they log you back into the system so another "team member" can call you back. And those so called do not call lists? Yeah, telemarketing firms close up shop every year or so and open under a different name to avoid prosecution.

Why not just say not interested and hang up? Is it really that much of a disturbance? And with caller ID, why answer the phone? It just seems a waste of effort to get so angry over something that only requires you to press "ignore".

But the yelling and screaming and cursing and carrying on? Really?

I don't yell or scream, but how many times after I hear "Canadian Pharmacy" do I have to repeat "Put me on your do not call list. I am not interested."? Once, twice, my record is eight times.

Why not just say not interested and hang up?

See above.

And with caller ID, why answer the phone?

Because telemarketing firms close up shop every year or so and open under a different name to avoid prosecution. Caller ID on a landline works differently than on a cell. On a land line it interrogates a central database. On a cell, it only knows from your cell phone's contact list.

It just seems a waste of effort to get so angry over something that only requires you to press "ignore".

So hang up. They expect it. Any other course of action creates tension for you, and amusement for them.

Again, water off a ducks back. They've been yelled at, swore at, threatened and insulted so many times they now think it's funny. I once had a supervisor who used to encourage his employees to re-dial those who were really rude, so he could record the call as the employee poked the "source" till they coulda choked, they were so mad.

The reason they don't accept "not interested" is they are actually instructed to keep trying to sell until the client buys something or hangs up. And these calls are monitored, so if they let one off the hook it could be their ass.

As for the do not call lists, most of them are hacked within a week, and most of the firms make a sport out of how many hacked lists they can buy.

Bar Sinister has it right.