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Telemarketers To Be Charged For Investigations Into Do Not Call List Violations

CP  |  By Posted: 04/29/2012 1:18 pm Updated: 05/ 2/2012 10:27 am

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OTTAWA - Telemarketers will soon be asked to pony up for the costs of investigating their own industry.

The Conservatives are announcing that they will transfer the costs of probes and enforcement of the Do Not Call List to the industry itself.

The industry already pays for administering the Do Not Call List, which includes about 10.6 million registered phone and fax numbers.

"The government's taking steps to make sure it's sustainable in the long term and will not be funded by the taxpayers, but is instead funded by the telemarketers," said Mike Lake, parliamentary secretary to the Industry minister.

The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) will consult with the telemarketing companies this fall on how fees will be levied.

It has imposed more than $2.1 million in fines over the three years to firms that violated the rules.

A recent Acrobat Research and Advanis survey on the Do Not Call List suggested 78 per cent of Canadians on the list felt they were getting fewer telemarketing calls.

The government did not immediately have an estimate of how much investigations and enforcement currently cost the taxpayer annually.

Also on HuffPost:

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OTTAWA - Telemarketers will soon be asked to pony up for the costs of investigating their own industry.The Conservatives are announcing that they will transfer the costs of probes and enforcement of t...
OTTAWA - Telemarketers will soon be asked to pony up for the costs of investigating their own industry.The Conservatives are announcing that they will transfer the costs of probes and enforcement of t...
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
PatientZeroBeat
Dying since 1962
210 Fans
 
10:42 AM on 04/30/2012
Telemarketing has ruined the telephone experience. There was once a time that it was kind of novel and exciting when the phone rang. I wouldn't hesitate to answer it. In the last 10 years I haven't answered the phone unless the call display showed that it was somebody I actually wanted to talk to.
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NAOMA
107 Fans
01:23 AM on 04/30/2012
I live in USA and am plagued by calls when I am on the "do not call list." I get so annoyed at this but there is no recourse. I usually hang up, scream at them, blow a whistle, etc. I know it is a "job" but the DO NOT CALL LIST is totally ineffective in the USA. And, I think charitable ones
and political ones are ACCEPTABLE in the U.S. For charitable ones I tell them: "I never donate over the phone." Political ones and recordings and nothing to do but hang up on them.
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waldopepper
I'd tell you all about me if you were my friend.
890 Fans
02:33 AM on 04/30/2012
Try this buddy.

http://www.systemnotes.org/notes/security/Defeat_Telemarketers_for_FREE.html
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Lechiffre
224 Fans
09:21 AM on 04/30/2012
My niece worked for a TM company for a couple of months last summer. They would trawl all networking sites .about 40 networking sites , then they match up all locations like a huge web.One thing they did that made me wanna gag , was , say you have relatives in latin america . They will ring them up.get them to give em your number, they keep them for a month or two then they call. They also got phone numbers from many companies that have gone bust . There is no escape.
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NAOMA
107 Fans
04:24 AM on 05/02/2012
We have decided once we get home to cancel our "land line" phone and just use my husband's cel phone. That will certainly cut off all those nuisance calls -- at all hours.

And there is always SKYPE (where you can see the person to whom you are speaking -- or just use the phone portion).
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NAOMA
107 Fans
11:20 AM on 05/03/2012
Dear Lechiffre -- that is a despicable practice. I fear there is no solution!!!!
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HUFFPOST SUPER USER
Cananna
I like trees and bunnies.
3368 Fans
 
11:45 PM on 04/29/2012
From what I understand, the "do not call list" is illegal for Canadian telemarketers to call, but perfectly legal for them to sell the list to telemarketers in the US.
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Newfoundlander
I'm a pessimist, an optimist with experience!
484 Fans
08:32 PM on 04/29/2012
"Telemarketers Will Pay For Do-Not-Call Investigations"
***************************

Yes, they should pay, but not merely in fines and costs--the CEOs should pay with jail time.
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Barbagris
178 Fans
06:49 PM on 04/29/2012
Don't get too excited about the 2.1 million dollars in fines until the CONS come up with the amount they have actually collected. I'll bet...not a fraction.
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Olena Gill
76 Fans
 
03:27 PM on 04/29/2012
For me, it's worked semi-well. I don't get as many calls since registering, and most of them in Canada come from Alberta. However, I am getting inundated with calls coming in from the US. Unfortunately, I can't register my # on the US National Registry, so my hands are tied on this one. As for fines levied, frankly I hope this increases, because I'm tired of people violating these rules.
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Kathy Kuenzl
113 Fans
07:54 PM on 04/29/2012
I'm on it too and I think it has helped some, but also wish there was a way too stop the ones coming from the US. I absolutely hate those calls. IMO they could raise the amount of the fines but wonder if any of the 2.1 million has actually been collected. I block them on my phone when I get one but they always seem to have new numbers to call from:)
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NAOMA
107 Fans
01:24 AM on 04/30/2012
U.S. where I live has the "no call" but it is totally ineffective. See my post above. They usually call at dinnertime or later in the evening. See my response as to what I do (above.)
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